Celery root (also called celeriac) is one of autumn's most delicious—but least appreciated—vegetables. Here it adds fresh celery flavor to this velvety first-course soup.
Ingredients
Makes 8 servings
Step 1
Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add celery; cover and cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add shallots; sauté uncovered 3 minutes. Stir in celery root cubes and potato, then broth and 1 1/2 teaspoons thyme. Increase heat to high; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 40 minutes. Cool slightly.
Step 2
Working in batches, transfer soup to blender and puree until smooth. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Cover and refrigerate.)
Step 3
Stir cream into soup and bring to simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with additional chopped thyme and serve.
How would you rate Celery Root Bisque with Thyme Croutons?
Leave a Review
Reviews (55)
Back to TopThis was quite good, very subtle, but delicious and warming to have on a rainy evening. Paired with a fresh loaf of soda bread, it made a lovely dinner. I used what I had on hand, since we're sheltered-in-place, and it's a very forgiving recipe.
Anonymous
Oakland, CA
4/6/2020
I'm giving this recipe four stars because I've made it according to the recipe and it was delicious. NOTE: This is not a great recipe for vegetarians. Today I made this for a vegetarian, so I substituted veggie broth. It completely overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the celeriac. Stick with the chicken broth.
marysl888
Oakton, VA
1/26/2014
Used 1/2 jerusalem artichokes (only had 11 oz celery root and about same of chokes) - chokes definitely dominated the flavor but still quite good. Toasted small cubed several day old baquette in half olive oil, 1/2 butter in lg skillet. Added thyme after toasted.
leastman
Sebastopol, CA
8/3/2013
Very easy and delicious. I added as much fresh tarragon as thyme and it gave me the soup an interesting flavour. I also did not use as much butter and used half-and-half instead of heavy cream. The soup was still plenty creamy and the half-and-half mellowed the celeriac flavour considerably (I might prefer the iteration without the dairy).
A_Cook_from_Toronto
Toronto, Canada
11/26/2012
I really liked this bisque. 3 1/2 forks really. I ommited the potato, added a few garlic cloves with the shallots. I used the celery tops, after washing them throughly. Finished with rosemary parmesan croutons (w a touch of cayenne), green onions, and truffle salt. Yum!
daniguinha
los angeles, ca
3/29/2012
this was my 1st attempt cooking with celery root, and what a SUCCESS!! it had a rich, velvety, creamy texture (even though i omitted the cream entirely). other changes: only used 2T of butter + subbed in a little EVOO. i also subbed homemade turkey stock. fantastic healthy soup!
cboramyi
new york, ny
3/27/2012
I made this a couple weeks ago and loved it. Today I made it again and added thinly sliced lemongrass stalk, WOW! A nice addition of flavor in my opinion.
bacon4me
3/1/2012
Crumble some bacon on it before serving, bacon makes everything better.
bacon4me
2/17/2012
GREAT SOUP! This was easy and delicious and has me thinking of other components that would add even more to this, like a brunoise of apple or adding some fennel. Can't wait to make it again!!!
bacon4me
2/17/2012
Awesome as written. I think the few posters who thought it was blah probably hadn't salted it adequately. Potato in a low-sodium chicken broth can quickly make a soup base taste like dishwater unless you titer the salt. Easy and quick. Now I have a go-to recipe for this farmer's market staple.
Anonymous
pittsburhg
2/13/2012
Indeed, where are the croutons?? I have made this and it is delicious, but wonder what happened to the last bit of the recipe.
Anonymous
Brussels, Belgium
1/29/2012
This soup is marvelous if you drizzle truffle oil on it.
deniz
seattle, wa
10/17/2011
I made this recipe exactly as written - the flavor was very mild, the consistency too thick, and where the heck are the croutons - it really needed a crunchy topping - - - highly over rated at 4 forks!
Anonymous
pennsylvania
1/16/2011
This was so good! I used about half of the required butter and cream, still very creamy and delicious. I added a whole red onion because I didn't have any shallots as well as some mixed frozen herbs. Very rich, flavorful and super easy to make.
emilyiso
New York
12/13/2010
People really loved this soup at dinner (one of my friends returned for thirds). I found this to have very basic, subtle flavors. I wouldn't necessarily choose this over any other soup. Not worth the effort of hunting down celery root, in my opinion.
superpuji
12/4/2010
