I know this is a beauty blog, but every now and then, I really like writing about something different. Like cooking!
You may remember that a couple of years ago, at the start of the pandemic, I signed up with Misfits Market, a subscription delivery service that focused on misshapen organic fruits and veggies. I’m still a subscriber in spite of having more complaints than I had initially. Misfits Market has grown to become a nationwide service rather than just a northeast service, and I think they grew a little too fast. And now, they sell meats and fish, dairy and eggs, bakery and pantry items, and pet food! I still mostly buy their produce. In my last order, there was a head of cauliflower. I love cauliflower and I hear it’s still the “it” vegetable, but Jeff just told me he wasn’t going to eat cauliflower for a while. Great.
The cauliflower sat in the fridge for at least a week. A couple of days ago, a recipe for cauliflower soup showed up in my Facebook feed. That’s it. I’ll make cauliflower soup!
The recipe was a cinch, and it came together in about a half hour. That was my dinner last night, two bowls of cauliflower soup, yum. The version I made had chicken stock in it, but you can easily substitute vegetable stock if you want a vegetarian version.
Here’s the recipe with a few of my tweaks in it:
Ingredients
1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1/4 c. celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, shredded
2 1/2 c. water
1 T. chicken stock or bouillon (or use veggie stock, if you want a vegetarian soup)
3 T. butter
3 T. all-purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste (I used 1.5 tsp. Diamond Crystal kosher salt and 1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper)
2 c. 2% milk
1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2-1 tsp. hot sauce
Instructions
- Break or cut the cauliflower into florets. And cut the larger florets in half. Chop the celery. Shred the carrot. And after shredding the carrot, shred the cheddar cheese and keep it separate from the carrot. Please don’t use the pre-shredded cheese because it has anti-clumping agents in it. I decided to do the shredding with my mother’s box grater, but feel free to shred it in your food processor.
2. Add the cauliflower, celery, carrots, water, and bouillon/stock to a Dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Cover and boil for 12-15 minutes till the cauliflower has softened and you can easily put a knife in it.
3. Make the traditional “blonde roux” with equal parts butter and flour and add milk. Melt 3 T. butter in a large saucepan. Add 3 T. flour, salt and pepper and stir or whisk till it is completely smooth. Add the milk a little at a time and stir. Bring to a boil or almost a boil, and heat till thickened.
4. Add the shredded cheddar to the Bechamel (butter/flour/milk) and stir till it is combined and smooth. Pour it into the cauliflower mixture and stir.
5. At this point, you can either serve it as is, or you can blend either some of it or all of it. I decided to blend about 2/3 of the soup, so it would be creamy but still have some pieces of cauliflower in it.
Enjoy! I think I will have another bowl of this lovely soup tonight. Here, it’s freezing outside: soup weather!
sounds like the soups was quick and easy Did you have leftovers that you could freeze? Nothing like having a bag of soup or chili in the freezer for those day you just don’t know what you want.
Unfortunately, because there’s dairy in the soup, it wouldn’t freeze well. But you can always halve the recipe. I am hoping I can talk Jeff into having just a little coz there is some left even after eating it myself two nights in a row. Delicious and filling!
This sounds, and looks, absolutely delicious, Allison! Thank you for the recipe!
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Hi, Allison – Sounds wonderful…and healthy! I’ve got to try this. Thanks – Angie, http://www.yourtrueselfblog.com
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