3 Italian Recipes with Carrots and Celery and Onions

The Holy Trinity of Italian Cooking

In Italian cuisine, this holy trinity is also called a “soffritto,” “odori,” or “battuto,” and it’s usually recipes with carrots and celery and onions in a 2:1:1 ratio which in France is called mirepoix. The holy trinity is the Cajun and Louisiana Creole variant of mirepoix. The holy trinity is typically equal measures of the three ingredients one part onions, one part celery, and one part green bell pepper. Read on to learn more.

Italian Style Vegan Celery Soup

Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: 4 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time:  15 minutes

Nutritional Facts/Info per serving/In total:

  • Calories: 47kcal
  • Carbohydrates: 10g
  • Protein: 1g
  • Fat: 1g
  • Saturated Fat: 1g
  • Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g
  • Monounsaturated Fat: 1g
  • Sodium: 124 mg
  • Potassium: 344 mg
  • Fiber: 3g
  • Sugar: 4g      
  • Vitamin A: 10391
  • Vitamin C: 8mg
  • Calcium: 58mg
  • Iron: 1mg

Ingredients

  • 4 med Carrots diced
  • 4 stalks of Celery diced
  • 1 small Onion diced
  • 5 cm Ginger Fresh, grated
  • 4 cloves Garlic small-med, grated
  • 1 handful Thyme fresh, small
  • 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive oil 
  • Salt to taste
  • 6 cups Water

Directions 

  1. Heat olive oil on med-high heat and add onion to a large pot. Sweat until semi-translucent. Add carrot and celery, stir through the onion, and sweat for another five minutes with the lid on.
  2. Add water, garlic, ginger, thyme, and salt and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to med-low and cook until all veggies are tender. Serve warm.

Pro Tips

  • Make use of a heavy-bottomed pot to prevent the contents from burning.
  • Try to cut the celery, carrot, and onion as uniformly as possible, resulting in a more aesthetically beautiful soup and a more consistent cooking time.
  • The carrot, onion, and celery should be sweated before cooking, making them sweeter. However, this is not required. You can save time by tossing everything into a pot and letting it simmer.
  • If you decide to use different colored carrots, keep in mind that the color of the soup may vary. You must always include onion, celery, and carrot in your ingredients. 

What to serve with Carrot Celery Soup?

Rolls for dinner baking your own bread is a great experience. Homemade dinner buns that you have just been preparing are an excellent addition to any meal. The crispy golden crust on the surface and fluffy, pillowy inside.

Variations

This soup can be used as a base soup to add some of your favorite ingredients. Make this an oil-free soup. Use a couple of tablespoons of water to sweat the onions rather than olive oil. We do this when we feel like we need to cleanse. We omit the salt too. If you’re interested in cleansing, check out my 369 Cleanse review. You can make this soup smooth using an immersion blender to blend all the ingredients. You can replace water and salt with vegetable stock. We recommend taste-testing. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice for a little bit of sourness.

Choosing the Best Celery for Vegan Celery Soup

  • Choose celery that is light in color, crisp, and has firm, tightly packed stalks.
  • Always choose celery that has the leaves still attached.
  • The leaves have a strong flavor that stands out. Celery leaves should have a bright, delicate green tint, not a dull, dark green. It’s also essential that they’re firm and not wilted or browning.

Cooking Tips:

  • To prevent celery that is stringy, select celery stalks that are closer to the middle of the head and are softer in texture. In addition, celery lighter in color is less likely to have through threads.
  • To see if your celery is stringy (which, for some, might be unpleasant), break it in half by hand before chopping it into pieces. If the celery strings protrude out of the break (as shown in the photo above), peel the celery to remove the strings.
  • Using a vegetable peeler or just snapping your celery into quarters and taking away the exposed, stringy ribs, you can easily remove the strings from your celery.
  • Are you looking for a low-carbohydrate alternative? You can use Cauliflower in place of the potato. It’s something I’ve tried, and it’s incredibly effective.
  • If you don’t have a stick blender, a food processor or blender will suffice to puree the soup in its entirety.
Soup with carrots and celery and onions

Recipe for Stir-Fried Celery and Carrots with Parmigiano-Reggiano

Time: 20 minutes

Serving Size: 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time:  15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 medium onion, sliced   
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
  • 6 stalks of celery, sliced
  • 4 medium carrots, sliced
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
  • Kosher or sea salt, to taste
  • Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and then stir in the onions. Cook for about two minutes or until the onions are soft.
  2. Add the carrots and cook for about three minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and celery, and continue cooking until the celery and carrots are tender (three to five) minutes.
  3. Stir in the lemon juice and thyme. Remove from heat and toss with the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
  4. Season with salt and pepper, and serve warm.
Onion, Carrot and Celery

Authentic Italian Soffrito

Time: 15 minutes

Serving Size: 0.25 Teaspoon (1 gram)

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time:  10 minutes

Nutritional Facts/Info per serving/In total:

  • Calorie: 0
  • Total fat: 0
  • Sodium: 30mg
  • Total Carbs: 0
  • Protein:0

Ingredients

  • Onions
  • Carrots
  • Celery
  • Olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, or butter
  • Garlic, white or red wine, herbs, spices (optional)

The classic soffritto recipe might vary throughout Italy, and there are regional and personal variations that can incorporate additional ingredients:

  1. Garlic has a beautiful scent and pairs well with vegetables, fish, and lentils, among other things (except with peas). On the other hand, garlic is quite fragile and can burn quickly, especially if it is sliced or chopped. When the soffritto is nearly finished, add it to the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
  2. If you’re making soffritto with legumes or meat (pork, beef, or chicken), aromatic herbs such as fresh or dried rosemary, bay leaves, sage, or thyme are a must-have. Include fresh chops of parsley in the soffritto, but do not use basil or mint.
  3. Meat: You may include diced cube meat such as pancetta, guanciale, or bacon as an additional flavorful variety that is highly popular in some locations. Toss them into the saucepan at the beginning of the cooking process to help reduce the overall amount of oil or butter used.
  4. White wine and red wine are excellent companions to meat and legume dishes, and a dash of each brings a plethora of flavor to the table.
  5. Adding spices to soffritto at the beginning of the cooking process is a common choice. Fresh red chile or chili flakes are also a good choice. Other herbs, like paprika, cumin, and turmeric, are not commonly included.

Directions

Cooking the mixture over medium-low heat in a heavy-bottomed skillet or a pot or pan with a nonstick bottom is great.

Cook the vegetables gently for a minimum of five minutes and a maximum of 20-25 minutes; if you’re not in a rush, you may take your time with them. You want to cook them until the onion is transparent and the veggies are soft or caramelized, but not until they are mushy. However, do not cook or burn them in any manner.

  1. Wash the vegetables, peel the carrot, celery, onion, and other ingredients and remove the leaves.
  2. With a sharp knife, mince or finely dice the onion, carrots, and celery. Try to keep the same size and use a chopping board and handle your knife carefully.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet or a pot over low to medium heat. A maximum of two tablespoons of olive oil (or the same amount of butter) is enough. When the oil starts shimmering, add the diced vegetables, and cook, stirring often.
  4. Adjust to low heat as needed, and continue to sauté until golden; it will take a minimum of five to 20 minutes; take your time.
  5. When the soffritto is almost ready, you can add minced garlic, aromatic herbs, spices, or wine. Give a good stir, keep cooking for one to two minutes, and then add the rest of the ingredients according to the recipe you want to make.

Tools for Cutting Vegetables for Soffritto

  • Nonna’s favorite knife is the mezzaluna, which is a half-moon-shaped knife that is an Italian classic.
  • Vegetable Chopper – this is the quickest and most convenient method for chopping many vegetables.
  • A good chef’s knife – this is a traditional, universal instrument that is ideal for small amounts of food.

This simple soffritto recipe is a must-have in any Italian kitchen because you can use it in almost any sauce, soup, or stew. Not a whole dish in and of itself, but rather a fundamental flavor base that is quick and simple to prepare!

Soffritto is a fragrant mixture of sliced onions, carrots, and celery gently cooked in olive oil or butter until the vegetables are soft. Soffritto is an Italian term that translates as “slightly fried” and describes the technique of patiently cooking these vegetables until they begin to unleash their flavor.

Consequently, the soffritto is often enhanced with additional ingredients such as garlic, aromatic herbs, and wine to achieve greater depth of taste and scent.

This simple soffritto recipe is a must-have in any Italian kitchen because you can use it in almost any sauce, soup, or stew. It’s not a whole dish in and of itself but rather a flavor base that’s quick and simple to produce.

We’ve been cooking this soffritto recipe for a long time, and we’ll tell you the truth: there is no such thing as a flawless formula or set of rules. Even while displaying how to peel and cube your vegetables perfectly would sound more professional, that is not how it works in real life when we are rushing to prepare a supper for the week. 

Some Italians don’t even use a chopping board or a chef’s knife while chopping vegetables, preferring to chop the vegetables over the pot while the oil is beginning to shimmer. Nonetheless, if you’re not comfortable with all of the chopping, this is awful advice. As a result, when it comes to making soffritto, please utilize a cutting board and handle a sharp knife with care, and remember these easy guidelines:

Quantities

The general rule requires onion, carrot, and celery with a ratio of 2-1-1 (it means two parts onion, one part carrot, and one part celery). But those rules are flexible, and I often use an equal portion of each; it works just fine.

How to Cut The Vegetables

Whatever you use to cut the vegetables into little bits will work. Mince, chop, dice, finely dice, whatever you use will work. Try to maintain the pieces the same size or slightly smaller, as this will aid in cooking them evenly.

It isn’t easy to maintain your integrity when you’re in a rush! But, according to tradition, you can accomplish the finely minced texture using a “mezzaluna,” a double-handled curved knife that rocks back and forth (that doesn’t seem particularly convenient, does it?).

More realistically, I prefer you use a chef’s knife or simply a sharp paring knife, and the entire process takes only a couple of minutes. Another option is to chop the veggies with a manual chopper (which keeps your fingers safe!) or with the pulse function of a food processor, but be careful not to convert them into a watery pulp: you don’t want any other liquid to be present save the olive oil. 

Lastly, a brief remark for those short on time: it’s acceptable to peel the carrots – I do it most of the time – but you are free to omit this step entirely.

Which Fat to Use

You can only use olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, or butter in this recipe. According to my perspective, not only is olive oil – or extra virgin olive oil – healthier than butter, but it’s also superior in terms of flavor to butter.

Where To Use Soffritto?

Consider these hearty, flavor-packed recipes, which make for tasty and convenient vegan family meals that even non-vegans will enjoy:

The following recipes include:

  • Chickpea pasta
  • Vegetable barley soup
  • Pasta with potatoes
  • Vegetarian cabbage soup.

Please let us know if you try this soffritto recipe or if you have any queries about its variants. Feel free to leave a comment, send us an email, or rate it. We would greatly appreciate hearing from you!

Can You Freeze Soffritto Mix?

Freshly prepared soffritto mixture is usually the nicest, and it is pretty simple to create. Although it is unnecessary to make a large batch of battuto (raw minced veggies to be used in soffritto), you can absolutely do so and freeze the remainder in a freezer bag, which is very useful for busy cooks. We do the same thing for parsley pesto, another flavorful kitchen staple that comes in handy.

Soffritto

Buon Appetito!

Variations include the use of garlic, parsley, or shallots in addition to the three trinity seasonings. In some circles, including among clergy, the addition of garlic to the holy trinity is referred to as “adding the Pope.”

The Cajun holy trinity comprises In Cajun food and Louisiana cuisine; the “holy trinity” is composed of three ingredients. Creole cuisine is the foundation for various dishes in Louisiana’s regional cuisines, and you can characterize it by using onions, bell peppers, and celery. This is the starting point for the production of Cajun/Creole foods such as crawfish étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya, among others.

As well as Louisiana, The holy trinity is a Creole version of mirepoix; standard mirepoix comprises two parts onions, one part carrots, and one part celery, whereas the holy trinity is made up of one or two parts onions, one part green bell pepper, and one part celery, depending on the recipe. It is also a development of the Spanish sofrito, which consists of onion, garlic, bell peppers, and tomatoes, among other ingredients.

Whatever the meal you are thinking of preparing, you have all the reasons to squeeze one of these recipes with celery to make your wholesome meal appealing and appetizing besides being complete. All you need to do is carefully follow the instructions, and you will never go wrong here. All the best and Buon Appetito!