Celery, parsnip, and porcini mushroom soup with white chocolate and hazelnut croutons

Ingredients for 3 servings:

• 300 g celeriac
• 150 g parsnip(s)
• 100 g onion(s)
• 50 g white chocolate
• 4 g porcini mushrooms, dried
• 600 ml vegetable stock
• 200 ml cream
• 100 ml dry white wine
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• ¼ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• 5 g vanilla extract
• 60 g butter
• e.g. pepper, white
• n. B. Salt
• 40 g dumpling bread (dried bread cubes)
• 30 g celery leaves
• 25 g hazelnuts
• 20 g butter
• n. B. Chives for garnishing

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 25 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

vegetarian

It’s best to buy the celeriac with the green parts so you have the leaves for the croutons. Peel and dice the celeriac, then peel and dice the parsnips. Wash and finely chop the celery leaves. Chop the white chocolate in the same way. Roughly crush the hazelnuts in a mortar and pestle. Peel and quarter the onions, then place them in a food processor along with the dried porcini mushrooms and finely chop. Melt about 3/4 of the butter for the soup in a small saucepan and add the finely chopped mixture from the food processor to the butter. Sauté everything over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in a larger saucepan and roast the celery and parsnip cubes for about 3-4 minutes. Stir occasionally and be careful not to overbrown. Deglaze with the white wine and loosen any browned residue from the bottom of the pan. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a boil, and add the nutmeg. Cover and simmer over low to medium heat for about 15 minutes. Then add the browned onion and porcini mushroom puree, pour in the cream, and add the chopped white chocolate and vanilla extract. Let everything simmer, covered, for another 5 minutes. While the soup is cooking, prepare the hazelnut croutons. Melt the butter for the croutons in a pan and toast the dried bread cubes and crushed hazelnuts over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, add the chopped celery leaves. Remove the soup from the heat and purée thoroughly with an immersion blender. Add the apple cider vinegar and season with white pepper and salt. When serving, place the hazelnut croutons in the center of the soup and garnish with chives. Notes: The celery leaves are tangy and offer almost more flavor than the actual bulb. If you don’t have any celery leaves because you only got the bulb, use fresh flat-leaf parsley instead. You can, of course, replace the dumpling bread with an old roll, diced accordingly. The amount of dried porcini mushrooms seems small. But when they are finely chopped while dry and then sautéed in butter, they develop a wealth of flavor and, together with the sautéed, finely chopped onions, also a great deal of umami spice. This way, the amount is sufficient to give the soup a light porcini aroma. The hazelnuts roasted with the croutons aromatically complement the celery and are a cheap alternative to white truffle oil. If you want the soup to be even more refined, you can also pass it through a sieve after puréeing.