Celery soup with blue cheese

Just a quick supper last night - out to a concert at Carnegie Hall. No shopping involved, just using up some tired dregs lurking in the fridge.

500g celery, chopped
6 shallots, chopped
1 large baking potato, chopped
butter
garlic oil
150g blue cheese
600ml shop-bought vegetable stock
120ml cream
salt and pepper

The vegetables do not need to be chopped in any particularly tidy fashion. Just sweat them off in a little butter and oil (no need for the garlic oil really, I'd just run out of olive oil) for about 10 minutes. Then add the stock, bring to the boil, and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes until everything is very soft. Off the heat add the cream and the cheese and liquidise with one of those hand-held liquidisers. It takes quite a lot to get rid of all the chunks of vegetables, but it does get there eventually. Add salt and pepper (it needs more than you might think - despite the cheese).

This soup is not going to change your life, but it's a decent way of using up some cheese that was on the brink of walking out. I think next time I will try it with better stock - as the shop-bought variety tends, if anything, to have too much taste.