Curry Leaf & Celery Soup

You know how you only ever need 1 or 2 stalks of celery, and then the rest rots away in the fridge?  The answer is Celery Soup!  I've made it a few times in the past, I believe following this recipe from Sylvia Fountaine, Feasting at Home.  This time, I decided to mix it up a bit and swap in some different ingredients based on what I had on hand that needed using up.  So, today we have what I'm calling Curry Leaf & Celery Soup:

INGREDIENTS

Items that are grouped by color in my ingredient lists can be measured out into bowls together while getting your Mise en Place, to streamline your cooking process as well as minimize the number of things you'll have to clean later. Any ingredient in the white section should be kept separate by itself.

2 Tablespoons of Earth Balance vegan butter (because I'm making this for our weekly potluck, it needs to be Dairy-Free, but you can of course use regular Butter if you want.) 1 stem of Curry Leaves (about 20-25 leaves)

1 Onion, diced 6 cloves of Garlic, roughly chopped 1 head of Celery (minus those couple of stalks you already used 😉)

1/2 teaspoon of Mustard Powder 1/2 teaspoon of Ginger Powder 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt 1 teaspoon of freshly ground White Pepper 1/4 teaspoon of Kashmiri Chili Powder

unpeeled Yukon Gold Potatoes, enough to make ~2 cups cubed 4 cups of Chicken Broth 1 cup of Water (optional)

the juice of 1/2 a Lime

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a soup pot, quickly fry the Curry Leaves in the Butter, no more than a minute.  Remove them from the pot and set aside for later, leaving the melted Butter in the pot.
2. Add the Onion, Garlic, and Celery to the pot, along with all the Spices, and cook over medium-high heat until the onions are translucent and just starting to brown.
3. Add the Potatoes and Chicken Broth to the pot.  You want the liquid to just cover all the vegetables.  If it doesn't, add some water to top it off.
4. Put the Curry Leaves back in, and bring it all to a boil for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes and celery are soft enough to mush.
5. Puree the soup using whatever tool(s) you have.  I started with my stick blender, and then once the soup was cooled off a bit, moved it all to the Vitamix -- in two batches -- to get it really smooth.
6. Squeeze in the Lime Juice and serve.

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