Celery soup with cheddar cheese

The refrigerator needed cleaning out this week.
Isn't it a job one dislikes intensely?
What did I find that needed using up immediately?
Celery, looking rather wilted, cheddar cheese with the start of "penicillin" and cold, bland, leftover mashed potatoes.
Cleaned and chopped up the celery, removed the penicillin from the cheese and re mashed the potatoes. Put them all together and made Celery Soup.
Using up these lonely tail end of food turned into a great soup.
So fast to make almost as fast as opening a can.
The fresh celery taste with a touch of thyme puts heavily salted canned soup to shame.
Celery Soup - 6 servings
Prep time - 15 minutes
Cook time - 40 minutes
1 TBSP. olive oil
1 cooking onion , chopped coarsely
5 ribs of celery with leaves,chopped coarsely
3 potatoes, peeled,chopped coarsely ( or 1-2 cups mashed potatoes)
4 cups water or chicken stock(low sodium)
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 -1 tsp salt to taste
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
Saute onions in oil til translucent, add celery, cook gently for 5 minutes.Add all remaining ingredients except the cheddar.Bring to a boil , reduce heat and cover,
let simmer for 30 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and top with cheddar cheese.
Calories per serving approx. 134
This recipe is an adaption of a Bonnie Stern recipe.
Allowing this soup to sit overnight enhances the flavours even more.
So it does take a little longer to cook than opening a can but one can't beat the deliciousness.