Dish of the week: cream of celery soup

The temperature in Newcastle starts to drop, everyone in your uni house suddenly gets the flu and deadlines are stacking up. So, the best thing to cheer yourself up with is a warm winter soup.

A lot of soups involve tons of vegetables that take hours to prepare, standing in front of the hob stirring for what seems like years and it is all a lot of effort for a tired student. But what's great about this soup is it's a simple microwave recipe that you can leave for the microwave to do all the work for you.

This dish is personally a family favourite. My mum would cook this soup most winters when I would get a bad cold and needed something to warm me up and make me feel better after coming home from school. But other then families, this dish is perfect for us uni students. It’s simple, quick, the ingredients are cheap, you can leave it in the fridge and reheat easily and it's just what you need when getting in from a long day at the Robbo.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

25g butter

1 large head of celery (washed, trimmed and thinly sliced)

1 medium onion (skinned and chopped)

900ml (1 ½ pints) chicken stock

300ml (1/2 pints) milk

Salt and pepper

Bouquet garni

60ml (4 tbsp) single cream

Cooking Instructions:

1. Put the butter into a 5-pint ovenproof glass bowl and microwave on HIGH for 45 seconds until the butter melts. Add the celery and onion and stir well to coat evenly with the butter. Cover ovenproof dish with cling film, pulling back one corner to vent. Microwave on HIGH for 6-8 minutes until the celery softens, stirring frequently.
2. Add the chicken stock, milk, salt, pepper and bouquet garni to the celery. Three-quarters cover the dish with cling film and microwave on HIGH for 18-20 minutes until the celery is very soft.
3. Cool the soup slightly, remove the bouquet garni and then puree in a blender or food processor, or rub through a sieve.
4. Return the soup to a clean, ovenproof serving bowl and reheat on HIGH for 2 minutes.  
5. Stir the cream into the soup. Serve garnished with chopped celery leaves.

Enjoy!