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.
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Crème au Blé Vert, otherwise Cérès
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 699, Crème au Blé Vert, otherwise Cérès, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Green wheat softened to tenderness, folded into Béchamel, passed fine, and loosened with white consommé: Cérès teaches that a cream soup becomes silken through patience and the sieve, not a surfeit of cream.
Soups & Stews
French
Comfort Food
Weeknight
4 hr 15 min
Active Time
1 hr 30 min cook•5 hr 45 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (8 cups; 6 to 8 servings)
Crème au Blé Vert, dite Cérès (green wheat cream soup), teaches the quiet discipline behind every purée soup: soften the main ingredient completely before asking sauce and sieve to refine it. A sieve can make tender grain silken; it cannot cure a hard center.
The book assumed a saucier with Béchamel ready, white consommé never off the fire, and a tammy with enough hands to keep rubbing grain through it. A home kitchen needs the same foundations, not the staffing: prepare the two finished components ahead, let a blender do the first heavy work, then pass the purée through a fine-mesh sieve. The blender replaces brigade labor; the final sieving stays because it is the dish.
This version halves the book's pound of wheat to eight ounces and keeps every fixed proportion, giving about two quarts for one cook, one stove, one evening. The soup reaches the bowl ivory, glossy, and fluid enough to fall from the ladle in a ribbon, with chervil pluches (small shreds of chervil) on the surface. The four-hour soak is not scaffolding. Keep it, then cook until a kernel crushes to paste between your fingers; that softness decides the whole soup.
Cérès belongs to the Parisian classical table, among the named crèmes and purées organized through a common grammar of cooked ingredient, white sauce, consommé, sieving, and cream. Its title invokes Cérès, the Roman goddess of grain, while its method turns the practical work of soaking dried green wheat into a refined soup course. It is not the property of Normandy, Provence, or Lyon, but a grand-kitchen preparation whose logic translates cleanly to the home saucepan.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried green wheat berries
Quantity
1¼ cups (300 ml / 225 g)
whole and uncracked
cold water
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg)
for soaking
cold water
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 120 g)
for cooking
prepared white consommé
Quantity
5½ cups (1.3 L / 1.3 kg)
divided, as needed
prepared Béchamel
Quantity
1¼ cups (300 ml / 315 g)
heavy cream
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / 240 g)
fine salt (optional)
Quantity
Up to 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g)
only if needed
fresh chervil pluches
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 2 g)
picked into small shreds for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried green wheat berrieswhole and uncracked | 1¼ cups (300 ml / 225 g) |
| cold waterfor soaking | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) |
| cold waterfor cooking | ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) |
| prepared white consommédivided, as needed | 5½ cups (1.3 L / 1.3 kg) |
| prepared Béchamel | 1¼ cups (300 ml / 315 g) |
| heavy cream | 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) |
| fine salt (optional)only if needed | Up to 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) |
| fresh chervil pluchespicked into small shreds for serving | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 2 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •3-quart heavy saucepan with lid
- •Countertop blender or immersion blender
- •Fine-mesh sieve or chinois
- •8-cup liquid measuring jug
- •Flexible spatula and ladle
Instructions
- 1
Soak the wheat
Sort the dried green wheat, rinse it until the water runs mostly clear, and cover it with the soaking water by several inches. Leave it in a cool place for four hours. The grains should swell and lose their chalky appearance while remaining firm. Drain thoroughly; the soaking water has done its work and does not enter the soup.
Do not shorten the soak to save an afternoon. It hydrates the grain to its center, which allows slow cooking to soften it without scorching the saucepan. - 2
Cook until yielding
Put the drained wheat in a heavy saucepan with the cooking water and ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the white consommé. Cover, bring it just to the first tremble, then cook over the gentlest heat for 60 to 75 minutes, stirring every fifteen minutes. It is ready only when a grain crushes into paste between two fingers. If the liquid disappears before the center softens, add reserved consommé two tablespoons at a time and continue. Ça se rattrape. A little extra liquid is harmless; a scorched grain is not.
Judge the grain, not the clock. Harvest, drying, and storage all change how quickly green wheat softens. - 3
Fold in Béchamel
Stir the prepared Béchamel into the tender wheat. Cook over low heat for ten minutes, stirring across the pan floor, until the mixture is completely united and moves as one thick mass around the spoon. Keep it below a boil. The Béchamel carries butter and milk into every grain and gives the finished soup its body; it is foundation, not decoration.
- 4
Purée and pass
Purée the hot mixture until no whole kernels remain, working in small batches and venting a countertop blender carefully, or using an immersion blender directly in the saucepan. Press the purée through a fine-mesh sieve or chinois into a clean pot, scraping the underside often. Stop when only dry, fibrous hulls remain. Forcing those through would make the soup coarse. The blender saves the labor once supplied by several hands, but it does not replace the sieve.
If the sieve clogs, work with smaller spoonfuls and scrape its underside. Do not dilute the purée merely to hurry it through. - 5
Loosen with consommé
Measure the sieved base, then whisk in reserved white consommé gradually until the total volume reaches 7 cups (1.65 L). The correct body is lighter than porridge but fuller than broth: it should coat a spoon with a thin, even film and pour in a continuous ribbon. If it remains heavy, add more consommé by the spoonful. If you add too much, hold the soup uncovered just below a simmer until its body returns. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Heat without boiling
Set the soup over medium-low heat and stir frequently until thoroughly hot, about eight minutes. Do not let it boil; the surface may quiver, but bubbles should not break through it. Taste before adding salt because both Béchamel and consommé arrive seasoned. If overheating makes the texture look rough, take the pot off the heat, whisk gently, and pass the soup through the clean sieve once more.
- 7
Finish and serve
Warm the serving bowls. Take the hot soup off the heat and stir in the heavy cream only as you are ready to serve, preserving its fresh richness and pale color. Ladle the Cérès into the bowls and scatter the chervil pluches lightly over each portion. Serve at once. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Ask for whole dried green wheat rather than cracked wheat. Whole, minimally smoked freekeh is the most practical modern source; strongly smoked grain will dominate a soup intended to remain quiet and delicate.
- •The prepared Béchamel and white consommé are finished components in this formula, exactly as the classical kitchen treated them. Use a pale chicken or veal consommé rather than brown stock, and make the Béchamel with real butter. We don't apologize for butter.
- •The source also permits the preparation as a purée or a velouté, but this recipe follows the crème form it sets down: Béchamel for body, consommé for adjustment, and cream added at service.
- •Chervil is tender and loses its perfume quickly. Pick the pluches shortly before serving and leave them uncooked.
- •A restrained dry white such as Mâcon blanc suits the soup, though a weeknight bowl with buttered toast needs no ceremony.
Advance Preparation
- •Begin the four-hour soak in the afternoon. If cooking must wait after the soak, drain the wheat thoroughly, cover it, and refrigerate it for up to twelve hours.
- •The prepared Béchamel and white consommé may be made up to two days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.
- •The soup may be completed through the consommé adjustment one day ahead. Cool it promptly, refrigerate it covered, and reheat without boiling. Add the cream and chervil only when serving.
- •Leftover finished soup keeps for two days under refrigeration. Reheat it gently and loosen it with a spoonful of consommé if the grain thickens it overnight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 245g)
Calories
265 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
50 mg
Sodium
1000 mg
Total Carbohydrates
25 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
10 g
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