This easy recipe for Creamy Celery Soup has no cream, making it a low-fat, vegan version of cream of celery soup that’s healthy & delicious.
A Thick, Creamy Celery Soup that’s Healthy and Delicious
Now that the weather is cooling down, it’s time to spend more time in the kitchen! When the weather gets cooler, I want comfort food, and I crave soups in particular! Â
This phenomenal recipe is a healthy vegetable soup that’s silky, thick and creamy, just like when it’s made the traditional way, but this soup has 90% fewer calories!
To cut calories, I’ve found a way to make beautiful creamy soups that don’t have a bit of cream.  The trick – adding a potato which adds to bulk as well as adding a creamy constancy.
Why this recipe works:
- Using large quantities of celery that cooks it in chicken stock with a bit of garlic, makes a soup that is full of flavor without the need of complicated ingredients.
- The use of potato to thicken the soup gives it more body and silky consistency.Â
- Pureeing the soup with the potato results in a creamy soup without the added fat.Â
This one is my go-to recipes when I’m craving soup I love how quick it comes together.  The only tedious part is chopping up the celery, garlic, onions and peeling one or two potatoes.  It’s really is simple to make.
Choosing the Best Celery for Celery Soup
- Choose light-colored, crisp celery with firm, tightly packed stalks. Â
- Always buy celery with the leaves still attached. The leaves are packed with flavor.
- Celery leaves should be should be a bright, pale green color. They should also be firm, not wilted or browning.
This is a lovely soup.  I have friends that absolutely love it even though they don’t normally like celery.
How to make Creamy Celery Soup:
Start with cutting the celery into roughly the same-sized pieces, about an inch – 1.5 inches, don’t worry about precision as the soup is going to be puréed anyway. You just want it to cook evenly. 
In a large stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat.
Add the onion and cook until soft.
Add the garlic and cook another minute.
Add the celery.
Pour in the stock.
Add the salt, pepper, and parsley.
Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
Cover and lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the celery and potatoes are soft enough that they can be easily pureed (But don’t let them get mushy).
Remove the soup from heat and remove enough stock so that the celery just covered by the remaining stock. Set the reserved stock aside.
Then Remove some of the chopped celery and set aside.
This will be added back into the soup to give it some texture.
Purée the soup with a stick blender in the pot adding the reserved stock little by little until the soup reaches the desired consistency.
If you don’t have a stick blender a food processor or blender would work too.
Add the reserved celery, mix to combine, serve hot and enjoy!
Other Soup Recipes You’ll Love
- Pasta Fagoli
- Potato Leek Soup
- Homemade Lentil Soup
- Yellow Split Pea and Bacon Soup
- Split Pea and Ham Soup
Want something a little different? Try this Best Ever Tom Kha Gai Soup recipe from 40 Aprons
Celery Nutrition Facts
Celery is mostly made up if water (about 95%), making it very low in calories, carbohydrates and fat, but not terribly high in many vitamins or minerals. Celery is a good source of Vitamin K (one cup contains 30% of the daily recommended value of the US FDA).
Celery is a good source of potassium, molybdenum folate and fiber. It also contains small amounts of vitamins A, C, and some B vitamins.
Cook’s Tips:
- To avoid stringy celery, use the more tender celery stalks that are closer to the middle of the head. Lighter colored celery is less likely to have though strings.
- To test if your celery is stringy (which for some can be unpleasant), before cutting the celery, break it in half by hand. If you see the strings sticking out of the break (see photo above), peel the celery to remove the strings.
- To remove the strings from the celery, clean and peel the back of the stalk with a vegetable peeler (for more detailed instructions, you can see this video on YouTube) or just by snapping your celery into sections and pulling out the exposed, stringy ribs.
- Want a low carb variation? Replace the potato with cauliflower. I’ve done it and it works really well.
I truly adore this recipe and would just love to know what you think if you try it. 🙂 And I’d love to know what YOUR low-fat secrets are for healthy eating!
Do you have a secret ingredient or technique? Please share in the comments section below!
Never Miss A Single Recipe!
Join the free Erren's Kitchen mailing list & get the latest tasty goodness straight to your inbox!
★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
Creamy Celery Soup
Come home to a warming bowlful of this scrumptious, low-fat soup. Satisfying and simple to make, this homemade soup is a great a light dinner or a tasty lunch.
Ingredients
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
- 2 lbs fresh celery cleaned and chopped (see post for removing strings)
- 1 qt chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 lb potatoes peeled the potato and cut it into quarters
- a good handful of fresh parsley roughly chopped, including stems
- salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
-
Chop the celery into roughly the same-sized pieces, about an inch - 1.5 inches, Don't worry about precision as the soup is going to be puréed anyway. You just want it to cook evenly.
-
In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft.
-
Add the garlic and cook another minute before adding the celery, stock, potato, and parsley. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
-
Cover, lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the celery and potatoes are soft enough that they can easily be pureed (But don't let them get too mushy).
-
Remove the soup from heat. If necessary, using a ladle, remove enough stock so that the celery is just covered. Set any reserved stock aside.
-
Remove some of the chopped celery with a slotted spoon (1-2 spoonfuls) and set aside.
-
Purée the soup with a stick blender in the pot - adding the reserved stock little by little until the soup reaches the desired consistency.
-
Add the reserved celery, mix to combine and serve hot.
Recipe Notes
- If you don't have a stick blender, a food processor or blender would work just as well to puree the soup.
- To avoid stringy celery, use the more tender celery stalks that are closer to the middle of the head. Lighter colored celery is less likely to have though strings.
- To test if your celery is stringy (which for some can be unpleasant), before cutting the celery, break it in half by hand. If you see the strings sticking out of the break (see photo above), peel the celery to remove the strings.
- To remove the strings from the celery, clean and peel the back of the stalk with a vegetable peeler (for more detailed instructions, you can see this video on YouTube) or just by snapping your celery into sections and pulling out the exposed, stringy ribs.
Update Notes:Â This recipe was originally posted in 2014 but published again in 2018 to include step by step directions, nutritional information, new photos, and a video.
Nancy Goldy says
05/10/2019 at 10:50 PMThis is the first time I’ve ever made celery soup. This is delicious. However, my chicken broth cooked down so I didn’t have any reserve. I used a cup of leftover broth and added that to the final puree. Again, I say, “Delish”!
Erren's Kitchen says
05/13/2019 at 5:08 PMThat’s awesome to hear you enjoyed it, Nancy!
Luella Windisch says
04/24/2019 at 8:50 PMNot a foodie or vegan, just an old lady trying not to throw out the old leftover celery @ $2.69 lb that’s gone limp. Keeping that in mind this is the best celery soup I’ve made. I scaled it back a lot because there is only the 2 of us and I only had ,8oz of leftover celery and some chicken broth leftover from another recipe. I didn’t string the celery, and chopped up everything except the root and it didn’t seem to matter. Potatoes are expensive in Hawaii so I used mashed potato flakes after pureeing the celery. The potato did make it smoother and richer. I just added a tablespoon at a time until I got the smoothness I was after. It hurts and expensive to throw food away, but I have to have celery in the fridge just in case I need it sometime. This is a great recipe worth buying the celery just for the recipe.
Erren's Kitchen says
04/26/2019 at 9:41 AMI’m glad you enjoyed it, Luella, and thank you for your feedback!
Sandra | A Dash of Sanity says
04/14/2019 at 9:53 AMLooks like a new favorite for weeknights!
Erren's Kitchen says
04/14/2019 at 1:24 PMThat’s awesome to hear!
Ann green says
02/17/2019 at 1:13 PMHow can this claim to be a vegan recipe when it uses chicken stock 😟
Erren says
02/17/2019 at 2:24 PMThe recipe actually calls for either chicken or vegetable stock.
Marshay says
02/16/2019 at 11:08 AMLovely recipe. Love the fact that it’s free of butter; milk and flour. I added 1/2 diced celery root and a diced fennel bulb. Very flavorful and easy too. Thank you.
Erren's Kitchen says
02/18/2019 at 6:28 PMHi Marshay, that does sound good, I’m glad you enjoyed!
ian walters says
02/13/2019 at 4:48 AMSounds good.
If you like an Asian spicy touch, add a soup spoon of sambal ulek (Chilli pounded in vinegar) readily available at any Asian supermarket or store.
Love the idea of the potato. I will use tiny new potatoes so I can leave skin on – adds a tad more flavour.
Erren says
02/13/2019 at 7:27 AMGreat feedback, Ian! Enjoy! 😊
Julie says
02/09/2019 at 6:51 PMI used the pulp from juicing celery in the morning. I wanted to not waste the pulp so I made this recipe. It worked out great!
Erren says
02/11/2019 at 9:50 AMGreat idea with the pulp, Julie! No waste is always good!
Cynthia says
01/28/2019 at 8:58 PMThis Celery Soup was delicious! I subbed ginger for the garlic and used a medium sized white sweet potato instead of Yukon as it was all I had at time. So yummy!!
Erren says
01/29/2019 at 9:15 PMSo glad you found a way to make it work, Cynthia!
Ani says
01/28/2019 at 5:17 PMI love this recipe! So simple and no complicated ingredients. The texture was spot on too. First recipe I have tried from your site, will definitely try others too!
Erren says
01/29/2019 at 9:16 PMThat’s so wonderful, Ani! Thanks for letting me know! 😊