Creamy Celery Soup

On its face, this vegan recipe for cream of celery soup presented a lot of questions - Is cream of celery soup, in addition to being a casserole ingredient, also soup? Why would a vegan attempt to make cream of anything? Will this have enough flavor to count as food? Is 3 stalks of celery enough vegetables to even call this a meal? 

I was so curious I made the recipe, as it was written, with only one change - using dairy milk rather than soy milk. The three reasons, in order of importance, that I proceeded (despite being very suspicious) were:

1) I was so damned curious

2) I love the idea of making one serving of soup at a time, and wanted to practice it

3) I had milk in the fridge, which never happens, and I needed to get rid of

It doesn't look good, does it? Even after I found some parsley to throw on it. I had a couple of bites and reflected that it resembled a sauce that might be good over vegetables. And then I started thinking about how much better it would be if there was something crunchy on top. And then I realized that I was constructing a casserole - not because I pigeonholed it! - but because that is where it belongs. 

Like that painting in my apartment in Chicago that brought the entire room together. The painting was a bit awkward on its own, but with the pillow/drapes/furniture combination, that painting was completely necessary!

The experience also made me realize that I love soup, and I aspire to make more soup, one bowl at a time. But no more creamy, dairy-based soups. At least until the next sweet corn crop comes in.

Creamy Celery Soup:

2 t butter

3 stalks celery

2 green onions

2 T water

1 T flour

2/3 c milk

Melt butter. Chop vegetables and add to pan, stir around until you're scared they will burn, then add water, cover, put on low, and cook until the celery is pretty soft - about ten minutes. Stir in the flour, and then very, very slowly and gradually while stirring the entire time, pour in the milk, simmer for a minute to cook out the flour and thicken.