Cream of Celeriac soup w/ Aubergine Caviar Toast

Comforting, warm, creamy, and delicious!

I had some celeriac in my fridge, and I thought to myself... this would make a hella soup!

So, I started to research which flavours would work best with the earthiness of this underrated root vegetable!

To me, a creamy and thick soup like this should always be accompanied by some sort of hardy bread. Croutons, Toast, Pita, the world is your oyster! I decided on a rustic ciabatta toast, and I topped it with a roasted aubergine spread, better known as Aubergine Caviar.

The name comes from these tiny seeds, which sort of act as a poor man's caviar for this lovely vegetable!

Now, I do realise that plenty of you do not necessarily like or use celeriac, but I do encourage you to at least make the Aubergine Caviar! It's delicious as is, and it can keep in the fridge for at least 5 days. Actually, the more in advance you make it, the better it gets, since all the flavours have time to mingle and get to know each other :)

Without further ado, let's get on with the recipe!

INGREDIENTS (serves 2)

SOUP:

450 - 500g celeriac, cut up into chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 Granny Smith apple, diced (a pear would also work beautifully)
1 celery stalk, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 - 5 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
800 ml vegetable broth
125g crème fraîche
80 - 150 ml cooking cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 - 3 bacon rashes, crisped up and cut into bits (for the topping)
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

AUBERGINE CAVIAR:

1 aubergine, sliced in half and scored
1 garlic clove
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 - 2 tablespoons sour cream
squeeze of lemon juice
handful of chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Start off by chopping your celeriac into reasonably similar chunks, then follow up by seasoning with salt & pepper, and a swirl of olive oil. Mix to coat evenly, and spread out on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 200°C for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the celeriac is cooked through, and slightly brown on the edges.

Continue on by slicing the aubergine in half lengthwise. Use a small paring knife to score each half diagonally, creating a diagonal checkered pattern.

Slice your garlic in half, then rub it into the aubergine to get it nice and fragrant.

A half a clove of garlic per one half of aubergine.

Then, break off the little bunches of rosemary leaves, and stab them into the cuts of the checkered pattern that you created. Either stab one half with rosemary and the other with thyme, or use one herb on both sides - whichever you prefer best.

Leave the used garlic half on top of the aubergine, and lay a piece of aluminium foil below it. Season with salt, and a swirl of olive oil, then press the aubergine halves back together, and roll it tightly in the foil, twisting off the edges to create a bonbon shape.

A snap to show you how my "mini garden" looked like!

Bake the aubergine in the same oven (also same temperature, 200°C), for 45 minutes or until completely tender, You'll notice that the overall volume will deflate, since they do have quite a lot of water in them actually!

Ideally, you would prepare these two elements one after each other, so that they can go into the oven at the same time!

Now that we have those two things sorted; let's chop up the rest for the soup!

So, onions, apple, celery stalks, garlic - roughly chopped, all go together in a pot over medium heat with some olive oil, salt and pepper to soften up. Once there, add in your thyme leaves, the stock, and the roasted celery.

You can start out with this whole "softening/sautéing" process maybe 6 - 7 minutes before your celeriac has finished roasting, so that your veggies aren't cooking off before the celeriac is done.

Reduce the heat to low/medium, cover with a lid, and simmer for 40 - 45 minutes.

Back to the Caviar! When your aubergines are nice and soft, carefully remove them from the foil (do watch out since the steam can honestly burn you) and use a spoon to scrape out the flesh and herbs. It should slide right off the skin, but you get some in there, don't worry since we're gonna chop it up finely anyway!

Once you've done that, leave it on a chopping board, and add a swirl of olive oil.

Use a sharp and large knife to finely chop up the aubergine flesh, to create a velvety, but still somewhat chunky paste.

Preheat a pan on medium to high heat, and add in your chopped aubergine. This it done to remove the excess water and to thicken it up. Watch out though, it won't take longer then 40 seconds - just make sure that you're tossing it constantly so it doesn't burn!

Transfer to a small bowl to cool down, and finish it off with some sour cream, a squeeze of lemon juice, some parsley or coriander (both of which I did not have unfortunately) salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Mix to incorporate, and taste to adjust the seasoning to your liking!

I served mine over a toasted Ciabattina, and topped it off with a drizzle of olive oil. plus a sprinkle of hot pepper flakes!

As to the soup, the only thing that's left is to crisp up some bacon in a pan (or oven) for the topping. Cut it up to bits once crisp, and set aside. Once the soup is cooked, transfer to a blender with the crème fraîche and a bit of cooking cream. Blend away until you get a nice smooth soup, then check if you like the consistency and flavour. If you want it more liquidy, add in more cooking cream!

Serve in a bowl and top with the lovely and crispy bacon bits, with a side of Aubergine Caviar toast!