I was shopping at Whole Foods last week and there were beautiful golden colored organic cauliflower. Irresistible. I bought a couple. I bought more than I should have bought but they were really a beautiful color. I waited a couple days to see if they would get roasted or steamed but I just wasn’t feeling it. It was kind of cold and I thought soup would be nice and I thought something creamy would be nice but not dairy creamy and then there were these cauliflowers in the refrigerator and also a couple of cups of homemade vegetable stock – kind of the bottom of the pot where the sediment and flavor is – sitting in the freezer just waiting for their part in something. The start of something – cauliflower soup.
I started poking around on the internet for recipes for cauliflower soup. I got a good sense of combinations and proportions and off I went. This is what I came up with but honestly, you can make a delicious soup with different quantities of these ingredients. More onion, less carrot or less carrot, more onion, more garlic, etc.
Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients:
A bunch of chopped up cauliflower like one huge head or two smaller ones.
1 very large yellow onion or two medium ones, diced
4 carrots, diced
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 cups vegetable broth – honestly you’ve got to do homemade because it makes a huge difference but if you just don’t have it then go ahead and use boxed or canned.
2 cups water
1 tsp sea salt
a grating of black pepper
½ cup unsweetened light coconut milk (or not)
Pumpkin seeds
Directions:
In a Dutch oven or other deep pot, heat the coconut oil and melt on medium-high heat. Add onions, carrots, garlic. Stir and cook until soft. Possibly they’ll take on a little color which is nice. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped cauliflower and cook for another few minutes. Add the broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook covered until the vegetables are very tender. Start checking after 15 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, salt, pepper. Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender (if you use an immersion blender be super careful – they’re so dangerous! I almost took my entire finger off once about 4 years ago and it’s still not right).
While the soup is cooking, put the pumpkin seeds in a pan on the stove and stir watching constantly and let the seeds pop. Sprinkle with a little salt. Top the bowls of soup with these seeds.
Pour into lovely bowls, sprinkle with roasted pumpkin seeds and serve with a nice crusty sourdough bread – or not.
