Cream of Potato-Celery Soup

I didn't expect this soup to turn out to be so wonderful. My low expectations were partly due to how non-perfect the tomato soup turned out and partly due to the fact that I only recently discovered how awesome potato soup is. If these recipes continue to make delcious foods, I am going to be making everything from scratch instead of buying premade foods.

This soup is not for people who don't like celery (or are allergic to it!). The celery definitely provides a distinct flavor. I'm not sure how much the chicken bouillon alters the flavor, so if you are a vegetarian you can possibly just leave it out. Or, if you don't want to use the bouillon cube for other reasons, you can substitute one of the two cups of water with chicken broth.

Two medium sized potatoes were enough to get the two cups of cubed potato pieces. The celery leaves can be found on the inside of a bundle of celery stalks or on top if they aren't removed before the store obtains them. I really don't know if those add flavor, so you can possibly leave them out and add a bit more celery if you are silly and buy precut celery.

Cream of Potato-Celery Soup (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
2 C peeled, raw, cubed potatoes
1 C thinly sliced celery
2 T chopped celery leaves
2 T minced onion
2 C water
1/2 t salt
1 C scalded milk
1 T margarine/butter
2 T flour
1/4 C cold milk
1 chicken bouillon cube
salt and pepper to taste

Chop up the potatoes, slice the celery, chop the leaves, and mince the onion. Throw all of this into a nice sized pot with the water and salt.

Bring the contents of the pot to a boil. Place a cover on the pot, reduce the heat, and simmer for 25ish minutes.

After this pot contents boil for the 25ish minutes, start to scald the milk. While the milk was scalding, I smashed a lot of the potatoes against the inside of the pot with a wooden spoon. I didn't want the soup to be very chunky! You can do this or not. You are the one who will be eating it.

Pour the scalded milk into the pot with the potatoes. Add the butter or margine as well. Mix this all up.

Meanwhile, add the flour to the cold milk. Stir well. If the flour leaves some lumps in the milk, you may end up with mini dumpling type things in your soup. Pour this thickened milk into the pot of potato soup. Stir in well and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. This will thicken the soup. Add the salt, pepper, and bouillon cube at this point.

Serve the soup while hot. Eat with a spoon. Or drink with a thick straw. I guess you can also pour some into a mug and just drink it that way. I won't restrict your soup eating options.

I made a double batch of this soup. Two days later, it heats up and is still very yummy.

Enjoy!