Just back from London where I had the chance to catch up with friends and family, and – on a bitterly cold day – try this amazing celeriac and parsley mash soup. It was from PRET A MANGER, and a perfect, soothing, warming thing. Here’s the recipe (pasted from their PDF, with only minor changes – they haven’t yet uploaded it to its own webpage)… It’s certainly worth trying to make if you aren’t near a Pret store! Now the challenge is to see if I can source all its ingredients locally…
Pret’s Celeriac and Parsley Mash Soup
INGREDIENTS (serves 4)
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
A large knob of butter
1 largish celeriac, peeled and roughly chopped
1 litre of vegetable stock (‘Marigold’ vegetable bouillon works well)
2 bay leaves
A pinch of dried rosemary
A smidgen of dried sage
Sea salt and coarse- ground black pepper
100ml double cream
A generous handful of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
MAKING THE SOUP
1. Gently fry the carrots and onion with the butter in a large pan until soft (around 10 minutes).
2. Add the vegetable stock, celeriac, bay leaves, rosemary and sage.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 25 minutes until all the vegetables are soft
and mushy.
4. Remove the bay leaves, roughly blend, then add the cream and the parsley.
5. Serve with the freshest, crunchiest bread you can find.