The Most Boring Food in the World?

I am quite passionate about food, but none of that enthusiasm can convince me to say that celery is an exciting ingredient. In fact, lately, I've begun to think that celery may very well be the most boring food in the world. Don't get me wrong -- I consider it an essential component of many recipes. Potato salad, tuna salad sandwich, chicken stock, and veggie party platters all need celery. And sure, celery is good for roughage and vitamins.

But when is celery ever the star ingredient of a spectacular dish? There's a reason why people serve celery sticks with a rich or savory dip. Braised celery is okay but frankly on the bland side. Cream of celery soup relies on the richness of the double cream to make it interesting.

Burdened with a celery bunch (left over from a recipe that called for only two stalks), I opted to make a light celery soup using only celery, shallots and chicken broth. I started by sweating the shallots and chopped celery (including the leafy bits which contributed a lot of the color). When softened, the chicken broth was added and brought to a simmer. With an immersion blender, the mixture was pureed.

At this stage, the soup had a grittiness that was too labor-intensive to consume. So I filtered out most of the fibres, keeping some for texture. The result was surprisingly pleasant and aromatic, just the thing to have on a cold night. It makes me yearn for more ideas on how to cook celery. Surely this underdog of the veggie world has more potential than people believe.