Creamy Celery Soup

Celery is one of my favorite vegetables to grow in our garden. Fresh picked dark green celery is so much better than the blanched tasteless supermarket celery. Today I made an adaptation of Cream of Celery Soup. Since I like chunky things in my soup, I combined a cream soup technique with lots of chopped celery. The flavor is heavenly!

Creamy Celery Soup

5 cups of chopped celery
6 medium red or white skinned potatoes, diced (skins on or off-I leave mine on)
1 large onion, chopped
3 T butter
3 cups chicken broth
1 tsp celery salt
1/2 cup half and half cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1.Saute onion in butter until just soft.
2. Add 2 cups of the celery, potatoes, celery salt, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or until potatoes are really soft.
3. Use an immersion blender or potato masher to blend the mixture until smooth and creamy. There will be some chunks of potato skin and celery threads- that's OK.
4. Put remaining celery in a saucepan and just barely cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and "stew" the celery for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
5. Pour stewed chopped celery into creamy celery mixture. Add half and half and stir until completely mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste (I use white pepper).

Makes about 5-6  1 cup servings.