Chickpea Noodle Soup with Spiralized Celeriac

This Chickpea Noodle Soup actually has no real noodles in it at all. Instead, it’s overflowing with noodle-thin strands of celery root and carrot. I think that alone makes this an over-achieving veggie soup. If you have a spiralizer, this recipe is a great excuse to get it out. If you can’t find affordable celeriac, you could do carrot or zucchini noodles.

What is celeriac? It’s sometimes called celery root, but it’s not the actual root of the plant we call celery. However, it does have a very mild flavor similar to celery and comes with the extra added bonus of being string-less. It makes a tasty substitute for mashed potatoes too if you want to give that a try.

If you just see it on your grocer’s shelf you might pass it by. It’s extremely weird looking. Gnarled up, furry with course hair-like roots and so bumpy it can be hard to peel. Don’t judge this veggie by looks alone – the flavor and texture are wonderful.

Believe it or not the celery root pictured above is actually more uniform and easier to peel than most. I even got it at a chain grocery so it was pretty cheap too. Make sure to weigh your root first if you are paying by the pound. I got an $8 one at Whole Foods before – ack! This one was about $3.

Once you’ve cut the end off the celeriac or carrots, peel, then create the noodle shapes with a spiralizer or julienne peeler. I’ve linked to the Paderno spiralizer that I have pictured above. It gets the best reviews and I’ve been very happy with it so far.

I had to work much harder to get the celery root noodles, so make sure that you’re pushing in as you turn. Close to the end I had worn little grooves in the root on the side that was attached to the handle and I took it off and turned it around so the spikes could get a grip again. This worked and I was able to make noodles out of almost the whole root.

While the strands above are long – even though I broke them apart a little – stirring the soup broke them up into a more soup sized noodle. Even though that happened, the veggie itself does not get mushy. I love the texture of this soup and ate 2 bowls of it for dinner. I didn’t let Cheryl take the leftovers to work either. They’re all mine!

What’s your favorite veggies to spiral? Other than these, I’ve done some zoodles. They were delicious with pasta sauce.

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Chickpea Celeriac Spiralized "Noodle" Soup

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Serves 4 servings     adjust servings

Here's a gluten-free, soy-free noodle-less vegetable noodle soup. The noodles are actually spiralized veggies!

Ingredients

• 1 medium celeriac (celery root), peeled
• 2 medium or 1 large carrots
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or broth
• 1 small onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups water
• 1 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas (drained and rinsed if canned)
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground rosemary or 3/4 teaspoon dried non-ground
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper, to taste
• a few handfuls of chopped kale or greens, optional

Instructions

1. Use the spaghetti sized blade on a spiralizer or use a julienne peeler tool to make the noodles from the celeriac and carrots.
2. Celeriac takes some concentration to spiral, but just keep pressing as you turn and you'll make it through just fine. You will use about 3 cups of the celeriac and all of the carrots later, save the rest for another soup or use in another dish.
3. Heat the olive oil or broth in a soup pot over medium heat, once hot saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and saute another 2 or 3 minutes.
4. Add the water, chickpeas, bouillon, thyme, marjoram, smoked paprika, turmeric and rosemary. Turn the heat up and almost bring to a boil. Add the celeriac and carrot "noodles", hen cover and simmer over medium-low until the veggie noodles are tender about 15 minutes.
5. Before serving stir in the nutritional yeast and add salt and pepper to suit your taste. The amount of salt will vary depending on the bouillon you use.
6. I like to throw in some chopped kale right before serving. The warm broth will soften it, but it won't get mushy. If you have a picky eater it's the mushy that seems to bother them the most about greens.

by Kathy Hester