A super easy and lovely green soup for these cold winter days.
In Italy celery used as an aromatic ingredient. Mostly! It's a part of famous "soffritto" (celery, white onion and carrots cut into small pieces, sauteed or braised in cooking oil) used as a base in Italian cuisine. And in central Italian cuisine sometimes you see veggies similar to celery fried and then used in Lasagne al forno, but celery in general is mostly used as a aromatic ingredient not as a main ingredient.
But I also, love they way we use it in Iranian cuisine as a main ingredient. Cooked celery, especially in dishes such a stews and soups does not have the same strong taste (reason many don't like celery) as when it's fresh! It's similar to fennel in this case - it will lose that sharp and strong taste after cooking and it'll taste amazing.
Sabzi Khoshk (Persian dry herbs) also are a big part of Persian cuisine, we use them a lot to make soups, Ashes and stews. Here is another soup I made using Persian dry herbs and fennel.
You can find the dry herbs in most Persian or Asian grocery stores In UK and America. But you also can find them here online.
Serves 4 People
Ingredients:
- 1 kg green celery
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 red onions
- 1 hip teaspoon turmeric
- 1 fresh or dried chili
- 300 g cooked white beans (you can use, cooked basmati rice, chickpeas or other types of white beans)
- 1 tablespoon of each of these dry Persian herbs (parsley, cilantro & spring onion)
- 1 teaspoon of each of these dry Persian herbs (mint and tarragon)
- 1 to 1.5 broth (or use water + 2 broth cube)
To serve:
- fresh lime juice
- Your favorite from yogurt, Kashk , Lighvan or Feta cheese or creme fraiche
Method:
- Wash, then slice the celery and its leaves in small pieces and also peel and chop the onions into big chunks.
- In a stew-pot or saucepan, add the olive oil, when is hot, add the red onions, sauteed them for 2-3 minutes on medium to medium-high heat, then lower the heat, add the turmeric and the chili, mix them well, and after about a minute, add the chopped celery while still wet after washing.
- Add a pinch of salt - that's help the veggies to cook faster. Continue to cook them for about 10 minutes or until they lose their water.
- Then add the cooked beans, the broth (or water + the broth cubes) and also the dry herbs. stir and bring it to boil.
- When it starts to boil, lower the heat and let the soup cook until the celery is soft. Remove the chili if you don't want it too spicy and blend the soup in the consistency that you prefer - serve the soup as you wish.