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Cream of Celery Soup with Dungeness Crab

This soup is a taste of autumn's last garden harvest in a bowl and the fresh Dungeness crab and hearty fried potato croutons are a wonderful addition. Comforting and flavorful this Cream of Celery soup could be the start of a grand meal or it could be a wholesome homemade supper on its own. What I love most about this soup is how adaptable it is to adding more or less of each ingredients to build a flavor that speaks to you.
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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Dungeness crab, cooked, cleaned and picked
  • 4 tsp butter
  • 2 tbsp roasted garlic olive oil
  • 1-2 bunches celery, chopped (more celery just means more celery flavor) reserve the leaves for garnish
  • 1 shallot, chopped
  • 1 leek, cleaned and chopped
  • 3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic confit or roasted garlic, peeled and chopped
  • ⅛ tsp red pepper flakes
  • ½ cup dry white wine ( Chardonnay works well)
  • 4 cups vegetable stock
  • 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • ¼-½ cup heavy cream, depending on your taste
  • sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Method
 

  1. If making fried potato croutons, you can make them in advance and keep warm in the oven while the soup is simmering.
    2. Over medium heat, add the butter and roasted garlic olive oil to a pot. Once butter is melted add the chop celery, shallot, leek, and potatoes. Cook for 3 minutes then add confit/roasted garlic, red pepper flakes, and a generous pinch of black pepper.
    3. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions and celery have released their moisture and the bottom of the pot has started to collect browned bits, about 10 minutes.
    4. Add the white wine and stir, scraping up all the browned bits. After the wine has almost completely evaporated, add vegetable stock and thyme springs. Stir and taste to see if a little salt is needed, of so add ½-1 teaspoons of sea salt.
    5. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the celery has softened and the potatoes are almost falling apart, about 10 minutes.
    6. While the soup cooks, if you have made them yet, make the fried potato croutons. (Instructions above).
    7. When the potatoes are tender, remove the woody thyme stems and peel off any remaining thyme leaves into the soup and turn off the heat. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream. Taste and add salt if needed.
    Garnish with crab, fried potato croutons and celery leaves.