Warm, Winter Cream of Celery Soup

For Christmas, my uncle got me a fabulous blender that also cooks!  I couldn't wait to try it out.

I started with warm, winter cream of celery soup.  So many celery soups are meant to be eaten chilled; I wanted to create one that would be delicious when served warm.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch celery and leaves, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 cups low-fat (1 percent) milk

I put the olive oil, celery, onion, and garlic in the blender first and cooked it on a high for ten minutes.

Then I added the broth and milk, stirred and lightly blended it, and allowed it to cook on high for 30 minutes.

The soup came out fragrant and tasty -- delicious with some cracked black pepper -- but the celery wasn't as tender as I would have liked.  As I type, I've got the rest of the batch cooking for 30 minutes more.  I think it will be perfect after that!

The best part of the new blender is that there is almost no mess...I think I'm going to like it!