I don’t know which is the bigger surprise, that I bought a Vita-Mix or that I bought a celery root. Since the Vita-Mix is the bigger purchase, I’ll go with that.
I bought a Vita-Mix! Thanks to a generous Christmas gift, I broke down and did something I never thought I’d do. I’ve put it off for years, buying progressively more expensive blenders that always fall apart, some appallingly quickly (grrr shame on you, KitchenAid!). I finally got tired of blender shopping every year and decided to get something that would last, backed up by a 7-year warranty. (Complete disclosure: I’ve been so happy with my Vita-Mix that I became an affiliate; if you buy one through my link, I get a commission and you get free shipping.)
But I didn’t anticipate that I would go power-happy with this thing. I’ve been blending up everything, just because I can, making silky smooth hummus with whole sesame seeds instead of tahini, delicious “ice creams” with frozen fruit, and creamy soups without the cream.
The amazing thing about this machine is that the blades spin so fast, the friction can heat a soup as it’s being blended. My daughter (aka The Potato Queen) has started coming home from school and eating a bowl or two of potato soup that she helps me make in about 10 minutes. I wasn’t always a fan of pureed soups, preferring to chew my food myself, but there’s something comforting about a bowl of hot, creamy soup on a cold January day.
When the potato soup was such a hit, I started branching out to other “cream of” soups. That’s when I saw the celery root (aka celeriac) in the grocery store. I’d never bought one before because I figured Why bother? If it tastes like celery, why not just use celery? But I knew that beneath the rough brown exterior, celeriac is a creamy white, just like potatoes. So I couldn’t resist the impulse to bring it home and pulverize it in my new favorite toy.
And I’m so glad I did. After all, celery root is high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber but low in calories. It makes a delicious soup that I can eat to my stomach’s content without feeling guilty.
Now, you don’t need a Vita-Mix to make this recipe; any blender can puree cooked celery root. And you don’t need a pressure cooker, either. But if you happen to have a Vita-Mix and a pressure cooker, you can cook this light, savory celery root soup in about 15 minutes. Consider it a healthy convenience food!
Creamy Celeriac Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 medium celery roots (4-5 cups chopped)
- 1 medium onion , chopped
- 4 cloves garlic , peeled
- 3 cups vegetable broth , divided
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Peel the celery root and cut it into equal-sized cubes (about 3/4-inch). Heat a pressure cooker or large saucepan and saute the onion and whole garlic until the onion begins to brown. Add the celery root and 2 cups of vegetable broth.
- For pressure cooking, bring to high pressure and cook for 4 minutes (more or less depending on size of celeriac cubes). Remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally.To cook in a regular sauce pan, cover and simmer until celeriac is tender, 20-30 minutes.
- Pour cooked celeriac and remaining broth into a blender and puree, starting at a low speed and increasing to high, in batches if necessary, until completely smooth (see note above). Pour back into the pot and add white pepper, thyme, and salt. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, adding additional broth if the soup gets too thick. Add non-dairy milk and lemon juice, stir well, and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add more salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.
- (Vita-Mix users may add all ingredients during the blending stage and blend at high speed until soup is steamy, about 2 minutes. Adjust seasonings and serve.)
Nutritional info is approximate.
Anonymous
August 17, 2009 at 9:40 amHow funny, same thing for me, i tought the Kitchenaid would be a long timer blender, but it last just few month after the warranty! Yes your right, shame on you Kitchenaid! It starts loosing one teeth after an other… Ah, but now, my vitamix is on it's way home! Im so hapy, and broke, but sooo happy…!
Thank you for your blog and recepies, wonderfull!
Xcuse my poor english, im french! 🙂
Émilie from Mt-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
Betsy Campisi
January 2, 2010 at 3:29 pmFor people who cant buy a Vitamix, there is a cheaper blender that may suffice while you save up (which is what I am doing).
I just bought one of those Ninja Master Prep. It's kind of upside down in the sense that the motor goes on the top.
Anyway, I am happy with it since it does a good job making green smoothies – gets the kale I've been putting in very finely chopped. Just tried some ice – it truly turns it into snow with a couple of pulses.
Anyway, don't know how long the thing will last but it's doing a good job now. It's about $50 at Target, and you can get it for less some places.
Worth a try if your blender is lame and you can't spring for the Vitamix type blenders yet!
Scott
January 11, 2012 at 12:07 amI bought mine for $25 at Target. They happened to be on ‘extra’ sale. I also bought the Ninja Professional blender. So far, so good. But what I will say about the Ninjas, while they puree fine, I find the puree is still not as good as my Oster blender. But, I don’t like the Oster because it forms an air bubble near the blades, so it takes a lot of work popping the bubble and getting everything to blend in.
I like the Ninjas a lot. If anyone is looking for a low cost blender, I highly recommend them, just remember, they’re not a Vita-Mix.
Some day, a Vita-Mix will be mine 🙂
cleanandkind
January 13, 2010 at 2:07 amWay to go with the vitamix! I really don't like making people feel like they NEED to buy a vita-mix to enter fruit and vegetable based nirvana, but investing in mine was one of the best purchases I ever made! It certainly, certainly rivaled the magic bullet I was functioning off of before 🙂
oh ps, I love the look of this simple, satisfying soup. thanks!
Leppy
January 13, 2010 at 11:03 amI love your soup recipes with the vita mix. I had an old old vita mix that didn't work that great, and now I bought the latest. What a difference and so now I am going blending crazy like you said. Please keep these soup recipes coming!!! Love it!!
Becky
Anonymous
January 17, 2010 at 8:30 amAttention: Do not use a food processor for purreeing soup! This may seem obvious to some, but I thought of a processor before my blender, and was soon spraying chunky, hot soup ALL over myself and the kitchen counter. Good advice at the top of the page for how to avoid accidents when using a blender. Who knew pureeing soup could be so dangerous?
janboroni
May 19, 2010 at 10:59 pmI just purchased my first Vita Mix on line today and am so excited. I can hardly wait for the 14 – 16 days for delivery. Thanks for being an affiliate and saving me $25.00 for shipping. The California sales tax doesn’t feel as painful with the discount on the shipping. I’m so looking forward to blending up some green smoothies and healthy, soups. Enjoy your website and recipes.
SusanV
May 20, 2010 at 7:40 amThank you so much for buying your Vita-Mix through my link! I really think you’ll enjoy it. The manual is great for giving you basic recipes and ratios for blending (liquid to solid), but once you’ve tried a few, it’s easy to experiment with whatever produce you happen to have.
Thanks again, and have fun! 🙂
Laura
October 26, 2010 at 2:05 pmI knew I’d find a recipe for celery root here – this is perfect – I bought them and didn’t know what I’d do with them. I’m going to add them with some parsnips in this soup & look forward to having it on a windy, fall night! Thank you!
Saynab
March 17, 2012 at 10:15 pmThis is a wonderful soup with a smooth, delicate flavor. (I love celery root!) I cooked it for dinner this evening. My old Osterizer blender did a fine job. I used almond milk instead of soy…also added a bit of dry sherry at the end just for fun. A loaf of soirdough and a bruised kale salad made the meal. Thanks for the recipe.!
pat van menk
November 13, 2012 at 10:18 amI have just made celeriac soup from your recipe. I used half a tbls of olive oil to saute
the onions and garlic. How do you do this without oil.
thank you,
Pat
Susan Voisin
November 13, 2012 at 10:31 amI use a non-stick skillet and just don’t need any oil. Sometimes people add a tablespoon or so of water, but I only do that rarely, if the onions stick at the end. I like the caramelized flavor the onions get without water. Oh and I only add the garlic during the last minute, so it doesn’t burn.
NottinghamKate
December 26, 2012 at 11:59 amThis soup is gorgeous! I made it today for lunch in my Vitamix. I kept all of your ingredients the same, however I changed the method slightly. As you instructed I sauteed the onions (always better that way!) but just put everything else raw into the blender and turned it up to full power. I used hot stock and by the time the onions were done the celeriac was cooked through and super creamy. Then just a quick wizz with the onions and garlic added in and it was done. Thanks for another keeper.
Judy
February 19, 2014 at 6:16 pmHow did I miss the fact that you didn’t have a Vitamix, you the reigning kitchen queen! If I had known I would have asked all your loyal followers to chip in with me and we’d have gotten one for you to say thank you for all you’ve done for us. Shame on me for this empty gesture and YEAH for you for getting your Vitamix. Enjoy it…you deserve it!
Judy
Susan Voisin
February 19, 2014 at 7:29 pmThanks, Judy! I really appreciate the sentiment and had to grin at “reigning kitchen queen” on a night when I’m feeding my family frozen veggie burgers (but with roasted potatoes). 😉 I have to point out that this post is from 5 years ago so I haven’t been doing without for a while now. The reconditioned Vitamix that I bought then is still working perfectly, and I became such a fan that I am now a Vitamix affiliate, meaning I can sell them through my site. I absolutely love it use it daily!
Alexandra
November 20, 2014 at 5:14 pmJust made with the last of our CSA, a withering old celeriac in the fridge I didn’t know what to do with; I used some lima beans instead of the soymilk. I’d never had celeriac, and was very pleasantly surprised at how good this was.
Dee
December 8, 2015 at 8:38 pmI finally made this soup tonight only using a quarter of the ingredients to be sure I liked it. Totally delish! Creamy, smooth and full of flavor..yummy!
Valerie
January 28, 2016 at 3:54 pmSince I bought my hand-held immersion blender I only use my blender to make summer smoothies. All blended soups take only a minute and doesn’t have to be done in batches, and the hand-held washes up really easily.
Jennette Borcic
January 7, 2017 at 2:28 pmJust made the Creamy Celeriac Soup – I didn’t have the roots so I just used celery – turned out super awesome! Thanks for another awesome recipe!
Nichole
March 16, 2020 at 10:14 pmThanks for posting this!
I’d never tried celeriac root before. After making this, I used celeriac root as a
substitute for potatoes in another dish, but for that, I had to add an acidic food
(unsweetened yogurt) to buffer the bitterness of the root.
This might be a great recipe for a taro root soup too. And makes me wonder
about a vegan celeriac root pirogi…
-Nichole