Chef Juliette
Purée de Carottes, otherwise Crécy
Purée de Carottes, otherwise Crécy, turns carrots, butter, rice, and white consommé into a silken soup. The lesson is simple and absolute: blend for smoothness, then sieve for finesse.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Purée de Céleri-rave
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 632, Purée de Céleri-rave, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Purée de Céleri-rave turns knobby celeriac into an ivory, butter-glossed soup, its bitterness blanched away, its body supplied by potato, and its sweetness clarified by a patient half-hour of skimming.
Soups & Stews
French
Comfort Food
Weeknight
25 min
Active Time
1 hr 20 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (6 to 8 servings)
Purée de Céleri-rave (celeriac purée soup) teaches the quiet discipline of dépouiller, purifying a soup by slow simmering and skimming until its flavour turns clean. It reaches creaminess without cream: celeriac supplies its earthy sweetness, potato gives body, and butter rounds the edges. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is that the full half-hour of skimming is not a flourish. It is the dish.
The original recipe assumed a saucier watching the pot, white consommé never off the fire, and a tammy ready for passing the purée. Your honest equivalents are a good prepared white consommé, a heavy saucepan, a food mill, and a sturdy fine-mesh sieve. Brigade watchfulness and multiplied service quantities are scaffolding; the blanching, gentle butter stew, potato binding, sieving, and thirty-minute dépouiller must stay. This compact one-pound batch already suits a home pot and makes close to two quarts, so its proportions remain intact. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Keep the celeriac pale in the butter, then hold the finished purée at the barest tremble while you skim. Colour makes it muddy, and haste leaves its flavour blunt. Give it the promised half-hour and it arrives ivory-smooth, clean, sweet, and ready for its crisp bread dice.
Celeriac flourishes in the cooler soils of northern and eastern France, but Purée de Céleri-rave belongs chiefly to the Paris-centered classical potage repertoire, where vegetables were classified by method rather than claimed as provincial specialties. It traveled between bourgeois dining rooms and grand kitchens, gaining its characteristic refinement from white consommé, passage through a tammy, and patient dépouillement. The name is sometimes mistaken for a vegetable side dish, but in this classical vocabulary purée means a strained, broth-moistened soup.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
unsalted butter for stewing
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
white consommé
Quantity
4 cups (950 ml / 950 g)
floury potatoes
Quantity
2 medium, about 2 cups (475 ml / 350 g)
peeled and finely minced
cold unsalted butter for finishing
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
diced
day-old white bread
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 85 g)
crusts removed and cut into small dice
unsalted butter for frying the bread dice
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| celeriacpeeled and finely minced | 4 cups (950 ml / 455 g), for Blanchings (No. 273) |
| unsalted butter for stewing | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| white consommé | 4 cups (950 ml / 950 g) |
| floury potatoespeeled and finely minced | 2 medium, about 2 cups (475 ml / 350 g) |
| cold unsalted butter for finishingdiced | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| day-old white breadcrusts removed and cut into small dice | 1½ cups (360 ml / 85 g) |
| unsalted butter for frying the bread dice | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •4-quart heavy saucepan
- •Food mill with medium disc
- •Sturdy fine-mesh sieve
- •Flexible spatula or bowl scraper
- •Small skimmer or broad shallow spoon
- •10-inch frying pan
Instructions
- 1
Blanch the celeriac
Prepare the minced celeriac according to Blanchings (No. 273), then drain it thoroughly. Spread it briefly on a clean towel and press away the water clinging to the pieces. Proper draining matters because wet celeriac boils in the butter instead of stewing gently, leaving its raw pungency intact.
Keep the pieces small and even. They should soften together, since large pieces left among the mince will resist the sieve later. - 2
Stew without colour
Melt the stewing butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the drained celeriac, cover loosely, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until every piece is glossy and beginning to soften without taking any colour. If the butter starts to brown, pull the pan from the heat and add a tablespoon of the measured consommé to stop it, then return the pan to a lower flame.
- 3
Moisten and simmer
Pour in the remaining white consommé and add the minced potatoes. Bring the liquid slowly to a bare simmer, then cook gently for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring along the bottom now and then, until both vegetables crush without resistance against the side of the pan. A hard boil roughens the flavour and drives liquid away before the potato can bind the soup.
- 4
Pass the purée
Pass the entire soup through a food mill fitted with its medium disc, then press it through a sturdy fine-mesh sieve with a flexible spatula. This two-stage passage is the home equivalent of rubbing the purée through a tammy. Do not work it with a high-speed blender after the potato is cooked; overworked potato starch turns elastic rather than silky. The strained purée may look thick and slightly dull at this point. That is exactly right.
- 5
Dépouiller for thirty minutes
Return the strained purée to a clean heavy saucepan and bring it to the faintest tremble. Dépouiller means to purify through slow simmering and skimming: for a full 30 minutes, lift away each veil of foam or dull scum as it gathers, stirring gently along the bottom every few minutes. Do not let the purée boil. If it catches, stop stirring and pour the clean upper portion into another saucepan without scraping the scorched base. Ça se rattrape, provided the burnt layer stays behind.
A broad shallow spoon or small skimmer removes surface foam without taking half the soup with it. The purée is ready when the surface looks clean and its flavour has lost the last bitter edge. - 6
Fry the bread dice
While the purée finishes, melt the garnish butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat. Add the bread dice in one layer and turn them frequently for 6 to 8 minutes, until crisp and evenly butter-gold on every face. Move them to a plate as soon as they are ready so the residual heat of the pan does not darken them.
- 7
Monter au beurre
Take the purée off the heat. Monter au beurre means finishing by emulsifying with butter: whisk in the cold diced butter a little at a time until the surface becomes satin-smooth and glossy. Do not boil it afterward. If yellow beads of butter appear, let the pan stand for one minute, then whisk firmly until the emulsion closes. Ladle into warm bowls and add the fried bread dice only as the bowls go to the table, while they are still crisp. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose a celeriac that feels heavy for its size, with a firm crown and no soft hollows. The root is knobby by nature, but deep creases mean more waste and can hide dry, corky flesh.
- •Use a pale, clean white consommé. A brown stock would dominate the celeriac and turn the soup beige; this purée depends on delicacy, not roasted depth.
- •A food mill followed by a fine sieve gives the right close texture without making the potato gluey. If you own only a sieve, cook the vegetables until completely tender and pass them in small batches while they are still hot.
- •The bread dice are part of the recipe, not a decorative afterthought. Fry them slowly enough to dry their centres, then add them at the final second so each spoonful carries both silk and crispness.
Advance Preparation
- •The purée can be prepared through the thirty-minute dépouiller up to two days ahead. Cool it promptly, cover, and refrigerate; reheat over low heat and monter au beurre only when serving.
- •The bread dice may be fried several hours ahead and kept at room temperature in an airtight container. If they soften, return them to a dry pan over low heat until crisp, then serve immediately.
- •Do not peel and mince the celeriac far in advance. Its cut surface darkens quickly, so have the Blanchings (No. 273) preparation ready before you begin cutting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 275g)
Calories
205 calories
Total Fat
11 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
30 mg
Sodium
700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
21 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
7 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Soups - Thick Soups
Browse the full collection
Chef Juliette
Purée de Carottes au Tapioca, otherwise Velours
Purée Crécy meets tender tapioca poached in white consommé, then butter brings the two together. Velours earns its name from the spoon: glossy, softly pearled, and entirely itself.
Chef Juliette
Purée de Choux de Bruxelles, otherwise Flamande
A pale-green Flamande purée built on fresh Brussels sprouts, butter, white consommé, and potato, passed smooth and milk-finished, with crisp bread dice for the necessary bite.
Chef Juliette
Purée de Choux-fleurs, otherwise Dubarry
Purée de Choux-fleurs Dubarry turns cauliflower, milk, potato, and butter into an ivory soup of remarkable poise, with white florets and crisp butter-fried croûtons declaring exactly what is in the bowl.