This cauliflower soup is my daughter's favorite recipe from the book that she helped create at Child's Play, the Pre School where both of my kids attended.
That's her on the cover. Let's check out her recipe!
MIS EN PLACE
This is a very quick and simple soup. The potatoes and fennel together give it a really nice sweetness. I also really like the texture of the tofu with all the diced vegetables. I made a couple adult changes to the original recipe. Those changes are the addition of the garlic (about 6 small cloves) and the onion.
The way that you cut the vegetables and take apart the cauliflower is very important. That's what this picture below is showing. This is a great soup to have your kids help you with because if you can cut the tops off the cauliflower they can use their tiny hands and fingers to break the tops or "florets" off the bases.
At the end of it all, you want all your vegetables to be the size of those tiny florets. It takes some time but you cannot cheat this step. The first time I made this soup I tried to cheat and use a Cuisinart Immersion Blender to blitz up the vegetables after cooking and my daughter straight up told me "Dad, you didn't make it right" and it broke my heart.
She ate it because she said it still tasted good but I could tell she didn't enjoy it as much.
After all your veg is diced you are going to start cooking it down in the butter and olive oil.
- Start by sautéing the onion and leek for 1-2 minutes to season the oil and butter a bit.
- Then add the potato, fennel, garlic and continue to saute
- Finally, add the cauliflower.
- Saute for another minute until the vegetables begin to soften and they are slightly sticking the the bottom of the pan.
Cover the sautéed vegetables with either stock or water and a nice squeeze of lemon juice. Vegetable stock will obviously keep it vegetarian but I made this batch with chicken stock (and a nicely reduced one at that). I like to make all my soups with chicken stock here at home (especially my vegetable soups) because we aren't vegetarians and it's a good, more mellow (digestively speaking) way to get the benefits of the collagens, fats, proteins and energy that comes from eating meat. An optional finisher for this soup is heavy cream.
Unfortunately, I didn't have any heavy cream on hand. I would have used half/half but I only had enough for tomorrow morning's cup of coffee and I'm not sacrificing that!!
Cream, half/half, milk or not... it is getting topped with cheese. Parmesan or Pecorino are the appropriate choices here. You want a nice, salty, sharp cheese. Also a little Italian Parsley from my garden. A nice glug of olive oil wouldn't be bad here in place of the cream either.
Below is the written recipe but I want to interject a little note about making soup.
Not all soup needs an exact recipe. I am presenting this recipe as simply as the picture of its ingredients. Sometimes this is how you make soup. A couple of these, a little of that.. quality ingredients always make a great soup. Recipe or not... Obviously the size of the vegetables you choose for this recipe will have a lot to do with its over all yield so keep that in mind...
Lola's Cauliflower Soup
3 ea. Potatoes, Small Dice
1 ea. Leek, Small Dice
1 ea. Onion, Small Dice
1 ea. Fennel Bulb, Small Dice
1 ea. Med Size Cauliflower, Small Dice Stems, Florets Broken off by Hand
5 cl. Garlic, Sliced
8oz Tofu, Small Dice
2 T. Butter
1 T. Olive Oil
1 Qt. Stock
1 C Water
Cream - Optional as a finisher
Shredded Cheese - Parmesan or Pecorino
Make it with your kids and enjoy it!! Tag me while you cook and with the finished recipes on my instagram page @market_forager.
Thanks for reading!!
Justin
Equipment used for this recipe:
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