I always start my prep work by chopping everything at the beginning. I used to chop as I went along and it ends up being too stressful trying to time everything. Notice there are two separate (and differently chopped) piles of celery.
This is a "before" shot...before used my submersion blender (greatest invention in the world by the way!)
I sauteed the onions and other celery while I was busy "submersion" blending the soup base. As a result, the bottom layer of onions got a little burnt...but not too bad. Be sure to keep an eye on them. They are very finely chopped and don't take long to cook.
The Light Cream of Celery Soup was a very pleasant suprise. First of all, it is less than a hundred calories a serving. I use skim milk so this helps a lot. I would like to try almond milk next time to make it vegan! The potatoes I used were a little larger than the recipe recommends. I did this because the prospect of Cream of Celery made me nervous and the potato is an old, comforting friend. I also substituted light Country Crock for butter as I normally do. Even butter fanatics probably can't tell the difference. It is only used for cooking the onions and once it gets all put together, the other flavors take over any butter or margarine flavor that was once a part of the vegetables. Word to the wise. Be careful with the white pepper. I tend to add more herbs and spices than the recipes in this book call for. This does not bode well for the Cream of Celery. It ended up OK but has a little more kick than it is suppose to. The recipe calls for sour cream. I did not add this to the soup as recommended and had I not overdone it with the pepper, it would not have needed it. However, I scoop just a little on my bowl of soup when I serve it to cut the kick. The color, I know, is not appealing, but it ended up being a great discovery of soup and I know I will be making it again.
