Over the last few weeks, I have made this soup several times. Soup, for me, is a perfect food for cold weather food and a few weeks ago in Estonia we still had thick snow covering all the streets and temperatures were frigid. Then we had a week of very rainy, windy, and cloudy weather, that melted almost all the snow, and it was still a good time for hot soup weather. And now for the last week, it has been colder again, but with a lot of sun and a real Spring feeling (even though there are still months to go until real Spring). I am almost sure I will make this soup at least once more before the weather gets warmer.
And why shouldn’t I, it is delicious, healthy, full of winter veggies, and extremely nutritious being full of vitamins A and K, for example.
I love all kinds of celery, but I know many people who don’t. Based on one celery-hater, this soup might still work for them as celeriac is a lot milder and simmered with barley and beans it does not have a strong distinct flavor. It just feels like a nice warm bowl of hugs.
Celeriac and Barley Soup
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
A cup of barley groats
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 large onion
A few sprigs of thyme
1 large or 2 small carrots
1 large celeriac
6 cups of vegetable stock
1 jar of white beans
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
Soak the barley groats for at least a few hours or overnight to reduce the cooking time.
Heat the oil in the bottom of a large pot, add the chopped onion, carrot, and thyme sprigs. Season with a little bit of salt and a LOT of freshly cracked black pepper. Fry on medium heat stirring now and then for about 10 minutes until the onions turn translucent.
In the meantime, peel the celeriac and cut it up to about ½ inch cubes. Add these to the pot too and fry for 5 more minutes until lightly browned.
Add the stock and barley groats, bring to boil, and simmer for half an hour. Check if barley is tender. If not, simmer for a little bit more. If yes, add the beans to the pot too, taste again, and add more salt or pepper if you feel like it (I like a lot of pepper in this soup).
Serve hot with a slice of rye bread if possible.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: www.kahvliga.ee.
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