Saturday, November 28, 2009

Cream of Cauliflower Soup



We had a luncheon for our CSA members at the farm at the end of the 2009 season and I remembered a soup recipe that I hadn’t made in years. Cream of Cauliflower soup. It’s really easy, really tasty and comes off as a very time consuming, forty ingredient, masterpiece. It’s a great way to use up some cauliflower too!

Prep time should take about 10 minutes.

Your ingredients are:

1 Large cauliflower
3 T butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 T flour
3 cups milk
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
3 vegetable bouillon cubes, crushed (a few times I couldn’t find vegetable bouillon cubes and used chicken bouillon with quarter cup of the cauliflower water in the roux)
Chopped parsley or chives and grated Parmesan cheese to garnish.

Trim cauliflower and steam until very tender. While cauliflower is steaming, sauté onion in the butter until softened. Add flour to butter and onion and cook for a few minutes, stirring to blend flour and butter. Slowly add 3 cups of milk, the sour cream or yogurt, and stir or whisk until thickened. Drain cauliflower and blend in a food processor until smooth. (this is where you can use some of the cauliflower steaming water as well). Process the milk mixture for a smoother texture. Add pureed cauliflower to the thickened milk mixture and stir well. Heat through. Garnish is the key to a wonderful finish on this soup. Salt and pepper to taste. Don’t over salt as the cheese adds a bit of salty taste.