Iced celery soup with cucumber and ceviche

A light, fresh iced celery soup with cucumber and ceviche. Totally a dish in its own right, but here served as a power starter as part of a three-course Sunday lunch.

This celery soup is served chilled with cucumber and ice once it's been cooked and cooled. Here it's served together with a simple ceviche of prawns and salmon, but it can be served without it.

It's also worth noting that this is a great soup for reducing food waste: it's actually better when you use celery and potatoes that are getting a bit "tired". With regard to the potatoes, you really don't want to add too many. This isn't meant to be a heavy, hearty soup and the potatoes function primarily to add a depth of flavour; an almost background root vegetable taste. Alternatively, use celeriac if you really want that celery core note to come through or swede if you prefer a slightly sweeter end result.

This recipe is for 2 or 3 diners as a starter; with a lunch to spare.

This dish was served as the starter of a three-course meal with this as the main course. And you can find the pudding for that meal here.

Shopping list

For the iced celery soup with cucumber

• 2 echalion shallots; diced

• 3 tbspns olive oil

• 1.5 tbpns smoked garlic, finely cubed

• 6 to 7 large sticks of celery, finely sliced

• Vegetable stock; 1 cube/jelly diluted in 500ml boiling water

• 5 or 6 small potatoes, peeled and roughly cut

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 tspn dried oregano

• ½ a fresh cucumber, very finely sliced or "spiralised"

• 50g spinach; frozen or fresh; chopped

• A large clutch of fresh dill, chopped

• 4 tbspns single cream

• Salt and black pepper to flavour

• Appox. 250g ice cubes

For the ceviche

• 2 small fillets of fresh salmon; skin off

• 8 or so king prawns; raw. Shell on or off; up to you

• A generous clutch of coriander, finely chopped

• The juice of 3 fresh limes

• 1 small red onion, finely chopped

• 1 red sweet chilli, chopped

• 4 o5 spring onions, finely sliced

• 1 tbspn of soy sauce

• 1 tspn honey

• salt and pepper to taste

Cooking method

For the ceviche

1. At least 12 hours before—preferably 24 hours before—cube your salmon fillets. Arrange the prawns on top of the salmon in a sealable container

2. Drizzle the juice of all the limes over salmon and prawns. Sprinkle over the chopped coriander, chilli, honey and finely chopped shallots. Seal and store in the fridge

3. After approx. 6 hours, take out this mix and gently stir using a wooden spoon. Using a pastry brush or similar implement, baste the contents fully with the lime juice from the bottom of the container. Re-cover and return to the fridge. Repeat this exercise approx. every 4 or 5 hours until it has been fully "cooked" by the lime juice

4. About 2 hours before serving, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with the soy

5. Allow it to return to room temperature about 30mins before plating. Place the ceviche at the centre of large soup bowls and gently pour the soup around it. Add the ice cubes and dress with the finely chopped or spiralised cucumber

For the iced celery soup

1. In a saucepan with a lid, heat the olive oil on a medium-to-high heat. Once it's hot, add the smoked garlic and sizzle for 2 to 3mins. Add and sweat the shallots until soft and translucent, but not browned. Add the celery and mix together, sweating for a further 6 or 7 mins, adding a little water if the ingredients become too dry

2. Add the potatoes and stir in, sealing them with the oil (add a dash more if needed) and juices. Before the potatoes begin to cook, add the stock. Bring to the boil. Add an additional 250ml boiling water—you want about 0.75l liquid in total. If your celery has leaves at the top of the stalks, do not discard. Instead, add to the pot. Add the bay leaves and oregano without stirring. Reduce the heat. Simmer for 15 to 20mins

3. When the potato softens and flakes easily, add a little additional water. Stir and bring to back to the boil. Simmer for another 6 to 8min, stirring occasionally. Add pepper and seasoning

4. When the soup thickens enough, add the spinach—you only want it to actually cook for about 3mins at this higher heat. If the soup is not yet sufficiently thickened, allow it to reduce a little longer before adding the spinach. When ready, remove from the heat and allow it to rest

5. When cooled for at least 5min, add the dill and cream. Using a handheld blender, blend to a smooth, thick soup. You can make this soup days before serving and store, sealed in the fridge

6. When serving, add the ice cubes directly into the dishes once you've plated your ceviche and gently poured the summer soup around it.

7. Garnish with the spiralised cucumber and serve with flatbreads, if anything at all

Alternatives

This is a quintessentially pescatarian dish. It's one of the cases in which I can offer no plant-based alternatives that replicate the original. Sorry.

However, the soup is delicious in and of itself and can be served without the ceviche; vegan if you leave out the cream. The one vegan attempt that I made involved crushed walnuts, chopped raw onions and chillies and straw mushrooms, all marinaded in the same way as the ceviche. Though delicious, I feel it was lacking something. Perhaps the walnuts were too "earthy" in the context of the marinade. I made a mental note to myself to try it with cashews of Brazil nuts as an alternative, but haven't yet got around to trialing it.

Pairings

Yes, I'm sure this would be great with any number of white or rosé wines—please feel free to share your suggestions. However, when served as part of a three-course Sunday lunch, in which lamb with a red was the main course, it seems ideal with a simple drink of iced sparkling water with a few slices of cucumber to accentuate the flavours of the dish.