Roasted Cauliflower Cream Soup

Easy, healthy, soul-warming bowl of goodness. Easy to make healthier, vegetarian, or vegan.

Ingredients

• Cauliflower, chopped to 1-inch or so pieces - 2lb

• Yellow onion, sliced or minced - 1 medium size

• Garlic, minced - 4 cloves

• Broth - 3 cups

• Olive oil

• Milk, as needed

• Butter - 2 tbsp

  • Or soaked cashews (for a vegan option)

• Seasoning: salt, pepper, nutmeg (optional)

Tools

• Heavy bottom pot or dutch oven

• Stand blender (eg Vitamix) or immersion blender

Method

1. Toss the chopped cauliflower with salt and olive oil and roast in a 425 preheated oven until the edges are browned and very fragrant, about 30 minutes.

2. 10-15 minutes before the cauliflower is done roasting, heat olive oil and start caramelizing the onions in a heavy bottom pan over low heat. Salt the onion with a few small pinches of salt to help draw out moisture. Low and slow and let it soften, turn translucent and caramelize without burning. There may be some brown bits on bottom of the pan. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.

3. When the onions are almost done, turn the heat to medium and add the minced garlic. Let the garlic golden and become fragrant. Before the garlic burns, add broth to the pot and deglaze the bottom, scraping up any brown bits (yum, flavour)

4. Reserve a few pretty florets of roasted cauliflower for garnish when serving later and dump the rest into the pot. Taste and season with salt and black pepper. Let all the ingredients cook together until you’re ready to serve.

5. Turn off the heat. Transfer the pot’s contents to a stand blender (be careful, it’ll be hot! use a ladle) or homogenize using an immersion blender. Thin the mixture out with milk to your desired texture (note that the soup thickens as it sits). Add butter and grate in a bit of nutmeg and blend some more. Add salt / pepper to taste.

6. To serve, ladle / pour the soup into bowls, top with your reserved florets, drizzle some olive and crack some black pepper or chili flakes on top.

Notes

• Roasting the cauliflower really helps bring out its flavour, don’t skip this step. Ever had steamed cauliflower? Yeah, it ain’t great.

• So much of the flavour in this soup is from the broth, I highly recommend you use as tasty of a broth as you can find / make.

• To make this vegetarian / vegan, use vegetarian broth, nut or soy mylk of your choice, and soaked cashews.

• Be careful using an immersion blender as the hot mixture tends to bubble (and the bubbles burst).

References

Cookie and Kate
Skinny Taste
Lidey Heuck @ NYTCooking (Vegan)