Cream of Celery Soup

In college a sorority sister made this yummy chicken dish that was kind of a simple casserole. It was chicken, a slice of cheese and condensed cream of celery soup on top, throw it in the oven and POOF! Yummy! I haven't made this in years and the other day I just had a hankering for it but modifying it the anti-inflammatory way. Not much to change for the chicken but I used the veggie cheese slice and then decided to make my own soup. There's so much gunk in canned foods and soups that I just didn't want to go that route so after searching the web I found a recipe I thought looked good, modified it and it turned out great. Best part of this is that the recipe can be modified for any cream of whatever soup: mushroom, asparagus, potato...


The dinner turned out decent, I didn't condense it enough but the soup was delicious. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. butter
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 cups chopped celery (with leaves)
• 1/4 tsp. celery seed (optional)
• 3 tbsp. GF flour
• 2 cups almond milk
• 1 cup light cream

Directions:
Simmer celery and bay leaf in chicken broth and water for 1/2 hour over low heat. If a smooth soup is desired, process with a blender until smooth (make sure to remove bay leaf if you decide to blend then add it back in once blended).


Saute onion just until tender in the butter, add GF flour and almond milk and simmer on low heat until thickened. Add celery and liquid, then cream and salt and pepper, to taste. If you want to thicken it, just add more or less GF flour as desired. Remove bay leaf before serving.

I couldn't really escape the dairy factor with the cream but I'm sure there's a way to modify that to work, if you discover one please post it! Enjoy!