A week of coloured soups...

Soup making isn't rocket science - just bung some stuff in a pan and simmer it for a bit then either eat with lumps and all or blitz - but still, there's probably nothing more comforting than a warm bowl of soup.

This week, I've had almost a rainbow of soups - bright pink beetroot and celeriac, deep grey mushroom, and a 'using up' golden orange rooty soup. I think beetroot and celeriac work really well together, and the soup really has the most wonderful colour that the photo doesn't do justice. I went travelling to Russia in the latter part of last year, and I found this soup really took me back to the beetroot and sour cream cuisine (!) that we encountered there. Here's the recipe.

Silky celeriac soup

Courtesy of my mum. A wonderfully silky textured, nutty and deep flavoured soup, with a nice freshness from the lemon – a delight to return home to after a hard day at work! I would really urge you to try celeriac – although it looks ugly it’s delicious, and in a soup the flavour is really mellow and warming. This served four with extra for two more for lunch.

The remaining ¾ of the large celeriac
2 potatoes
1 small onion
veg stock (cook the veg in about a litre-ish or enough to cover and add more if needed)
splash of milk (maybe a couple of tablespoons – all to taste)
squeeze of lemon juice (same as above – start with about a tablespoon and add more if you like)

Finely chop the onion and sweat this in olive oil for about 10 mins in a pan. Add the cubed potatoes and celeriac and stir for a couple of mins. Then add the stock, and simmer for about 20 mins or until the veg is soft. Puree in a liquidiser or with a hand blender until really smooth. Add a splash of milk for extra creaminess, and a little squeeze of lemon juice to taste. You can also add more stock if you prefer the soup thinner. Serve with crusty bread and plenty of pepper sprinkled on top.

Bashed roots with sausages and an onion, apple and cider sauce

My first veggie box meal!

Now this was super tasty. The sauce is kind of syrupy in texture and really brings the whole meal together – it’s almost like a warm liquidy chutney. This is lovely comfort food.

Mash/bash
Some celeriac (I used a quarter of quite a big one for 4 people)
A swede
Potato (enough to feed as many as you’ve got – I used about 3 for 4 people)
(could also be nice with other roots – parsnips, carrots, squash)
knob of butter
lots of salt and pepper
might also be good with a bit of mustard stirred in according to taste – I didn’t try this tho

Scrub, peel and chop the roots, then pop them into a saucepan of water, bring to the boil and simmer until done (I think 15-20 mins but a knife is the best indicator!) Drain, season and mash to the texture you like it. I like it quite lumpy, so you still get little pieces of different veg – you might get a nice celeriac mouthful, yum! Add a bit of butter for smoothness – you could also add a bit of milk if you wanted, or leave both out.

Sauce
1 onion finely sliced
a couple of big cloves of garlic, finely sliced
a couple of sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
half to one apple, peeled and sliced into little bits (it will cook down a little bit so don’t worry too much about it)
a bottle of cider
sprinkling of sugar

To make this I sweated the onions on a low-ish heat for about 15 minutes in a pan with a bit of sugar, then added the garlic and apple for about 5-10 mins. After that I added the rosemary and the bottle of cider, and simmered and reduced it until it was syrupy.

I served these up with some veggie sausages (good for adapting for meat eaters too!) and some steamed cabbage sprinkled with a little salt after cooking.