I love soup. When I make it, the whole house smells warm and delicious. Soup should be good food, low in fat, salt, and high in nutrients. This one has all of that! Packed with vitamin A, C, iron, potassium, calcium, Vitamin K, fiber, and protein, this soup is a healing food. It’s also fat/oil free. There’s no need to sauté ingredients in oil. If you want to sauté, add vegetables to a hot pan, and add a little water to the pan if needed. This prevents them from sticking, and still allows you the ability to caramelize ingredients without the need for oil. You can skip this altogether and simmer ingredients all at once. You choose 🙂
One of the main ingredients in this soup might be unfamiliar to you. Celeraic is the root of the celery plant. 
Being a root vegetable, celeriac is often found in fall and winter recipes. Celeraic is low in calories, high in Vitamin K, phosphorus, and Vitamin C. It’s related to the carrot family, and acts like any root vegetable, starchy until cooked. To prepare it, cut off the tops and the base, and peel it. You will expose the white flesh, and see that it’s very similar to a potato, turnip, or parsnip. 
Once cooked, the sweetness of the sugars stored in the root come out to flavor the food. If you don’t want to cook with celeriac, you can replace it with parsnips. For more info on celeriac: http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/celeriac.html
This soup is made creamy and thick by pureeing it in a blender. You can use an immersion blender, but it won’t create as smooth of a consistency. I used our Vitamix, which I find to be the best appliance in the house! It was great with the added topping of some garlicky mushrooms and sautéed kale. It was also great one its own as a main meal, along with a salad. Our kids loved it too!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 2 tbsp ground sage
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper (plus more for seasoning)
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt (plus more for seasoning)
- 1 1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cups cooked cannellini beans, (we used 2 cups dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and cooked in a pressure cooker for 11 minutes with 2 white sage leaves)-can reserve cooking liquid to use in place of water
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 2 cups peeled and chopped celeriac (celery root), if you can’t find, parsnips can be used in place
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 5-6 cups of water
- freshly grated nutmeg
- 1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (to taste)
Instructions:
- If making your own beans, soak over night or for 8 hours. Drain and cook in a pressure cooker with 2 bays leaves. Bring to pressure and cook for 11 minutes. If no pressure cooker, cover with water and bring to boil, reduce to low and simmer until tender, around 1 1/2 hours. Drain, reserving some of the bean liquid for the base of the soup.
- Place onions, celery, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper into a soup pot that can hold 2 quarts. Add just enough water to cover the bottom, and sauté ingredients until softened.
- Add carrots, celeriac/parsnips and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Add water/broth starting with 5 cups (adding an additional cup if you think it needs it), bay leaves, and beans and cook until all ingredients have softened and flavors have blended, around 20 minutes.
- Remove soup from pan and adding in batches, puree in a good blender (like a Vitamix). If soup is too thick, you can add additional broth/water, we ended up using 6 cups. We pureed about 3/4 of the soup and left some chunky to add texture. Be careful that blender is vented and not more than 3/4 full, as hot liquid will expand when blended. If preferred, you can use a stick blender, noting you will not achieve the same texture.
- Season with fresh lemon juice starting with 1 tbsp and increasing to 2 if desired, salt, pepper, and a hardy amount of freshly grated nutmeg to taste. Serve topped with fresh parsley, or some garlicky mushrooms.
Nutritional Benefits:
- Packed with plant-based protein 14.5 g!; great for healing and repairing
- Packed with fiber; 11.3 g!!! Great for digestive health, decreases bad cholesterol, regulating blood sugar, increasing satiety.
- Plant-based and Gluten free: reduces inflammation
- High in antioxidants-Vitamin A 54% which helps to lower blood pressure, improve skin, eye, bone, and dental healthy, and Vitamin C 18%, helps with decreasing inflammation & boosting immunity
- Good source of plant-based iron-33% daily needs; better assimilated by the body, good for oxygenation of the blood
- Amazing source of potassium: 1155 mg, helps to regulate kidney and nervous function, regulates blood pressure
- Good source of phosphorus; which helps in cell metabolism, bone and teeth strength
- Good source of Vitamin K: improves bone density and dental health, as well as improving the functionality of the brain and has been shown to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
- Good source of plant-based calcium, 20% daily needs. Plant-Based sources of calcium are more easily absorbed by the body
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 2 tbsp ground sage
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- ¼ tsp ground pepper (plus more for seasoning)
- 1½ tsp kosher salt (plus more for seasoning)
- 1½ tbsp chopped garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cups cooked cannellini beans, (we used 2 cups dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and cooked in a pressure cooker for 11 minutes with 2 sage leaves)-can reserve cooking liquid to use in place of water
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 2 cups peeled and chopped celeriac (celery root), if you can't find, parsnips can be used in place
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 5-6 cups of water
- freshly grated nutmeg
- 1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (to taste)
- If making your own beans, soak over night or for 8 hours. Drain and cook in a pressure cooker with 2 bays leaves. Bring to pressure and cook for 11 minutes. If no pressure cooker, cover with water and bring to boil, reduce to low and simmer until tender, around 1½ hours. Drain, reserving some of the bean liquid for the base of the soup.
- Place onions, celery, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper into a soup pot that can hold 2 quarts. Add just enough water to cover the bottom, and sauté ingredients until softened.
- Add carrots, celeriac/parsnips and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Add water/broth starting with 5 cups (adding an additional cup if you think it needs it), bay leaves, and beans and cook until all ingredients have softened and flavors have blended, around 20 minutes.
- Remove soup from pan and adding in batches, puree in a good blender (like a
- Vitamix). If soup is too thick, can add additional broth/water (we ended up using 6 cups). We pureed about ¾ of the soup and left some chunky to add texture. Be careful that blender is vented and not more than ¾ full, as hot liquid will expand when blended. If preferred, you can use a stick blender, noting you will not achieve the same texture.
- Season with fresh lemon juice starting with 1 tbsp and increasing to 2 if desired, salt, pepper, and a hardy amount of freshly grated nutmeg to taste. Serve topped with fresh parsley, or some garlicky mushrooms.
