RECIPE: Celeriac Soup with Cumin, Sumac, and Dill

The original recipe for this soup, made with cauliflower, is one of my favorite soups EVER!  When I was out of frozen farm cauliflower, but had  plenty of celeriac, I decided to see if it would make a good substitute and was thrilled that it DOES!

I used an immersion blender for this so it's not as creamy as the cauliflower version.

Original recipe: Cauliflower Soup

Celeriac Soup with Cumin, Sumac and Dill

Makes 8-10 cups

Ingredients:

• 4 medium celeriac, cleaned cut into 1/2" cubes
• 4 T. ghee, melted, divided
• salt and cayenne
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 t. ground turmeric
• 1 t. ground sumac
• 2 t. ground cumin
• 2.5 t. ground paprika
• 4 cups broth (I used oxtail, you can use vegetable, veal or chicken instead)
• 1 c. cream or half-and-half
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 2 T. chopped fresh dill (I used frozen dill)

Cook the celeriac in acidulated water to cover until tender.  Drain.
Heat 2 T ghee in a large saucepan and saute onion until translucent.

Push the onion to the side of the pan and add the celeriac to the center.  Saute until lightly browned.

Add garlic, turmeric, sumac, cumin and paprika.  Stir for a few seconds until fragrant.

Add broth.

Bring to a simmer on med-high heat.  Cover and cook until celeriac is fall-apart tender, 5-10 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool slightly.  At this point you can either use an immersion blender to create a chunky soup, or transfer to a food processor and create a creamy one.  If I were serving this to company I would use the food processor because it looks more appetizing, but since it was just for us, I used an immersion blender.

Return to heat and stir in cream or half-and-half and then lemon juice.

Serve topped with dill.

I froze this in quart jars and it reheated beautifully!