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Lemony Cauliflower Soup

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Creamy and chunky, creating wonderful textural contrasts, and with subtle undertones of lemon balanced out by the herbs and pepper, this soup is a real winner and would be perfect for entertaining. This recipe serves 4-6 depending on whether it’s being eaten as a starter or a main.

Ingredients:
2 white onions, finely chopped
650g white mushrooms, quartered
1.5 litres vegetable broth
1 large potato, peeled and in bite-size dice
1 tsp dried thyme*
1 tsp dried basil*
1 head cauliflower, in small florets
1 lemon, rind and zest
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Red chilli flakes and parsley (optional)

*Crumbling dried herbs between your fingers before adding them to a dish will help to release more of their aromatic oils.

Directions:
1. Preheat a large soup pot over a medium low heat. Add the onion and mushroom, and sauté until the mushrooms release their liquid.
2. Add the vegetable broth, potato, and herbs. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the cauliflower, cover the soup once again, and simmer for 7 minutes more.
4. Stir through the lemon zest and juice.
5. Transfer half of the soup to a blender and blend until smooth (optional). Return to the pot to reheat, and season to taste.
6. Serve garnished with red chilli flakes and parsley, and a little extra lemon zest, if desired.

Creamy Butternut, Cauliflower, and Lentil Soup

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This is an easy budget soup, making four main-meal-sized portions. Don’t let the inclusion of the notoriously difficult to peel squash put you off; there are two options below to make your job much, much easier. As always, use this recipe as a roadmap: try it with the addition of coconut milk and either Thai or Indian spices; add a can of tomato sauce and some Italian herbs. A good base soup can be varied in so many different ways.

Ingredients:

1 red onion, medium dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 butternut squash
200g split red lentils
1 small cauliflower, in florets (approx. 500g)
1.5 litres vegetable stock
Pinch chilli flakes
1 tbsp fresh sage leaves, minced (or 1 tsp, dried, rubbed between fingers)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 heaped tbsp yellow miso

Directions:
1. Carefully make several slits in skin of the squash with a small sharp knife, and microwave for about 3-5 minutes to loosen the peel from the flesh slightly. Alternatively, slit and then boil the squash whole in a large stock pot for about 5 minutes, until softened. Wait until it’s cool enough to handle, and then peel, deseed, and chop into bite-sized dice.
2. In a stock pot over a very low heat, sweat the onion and garlic, stirring frequently until softened, about 5 minutes. Don’t allow them to take on any colour; if they start to stick, the heat is too high. Lower it, and add a little broth to loosen.
3. Add the cauliflower, stock, butternut squash, chilli flakes, and sage leaves. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
4. While the soup is cooking, rinse and drain the lentils, picking them over to ensure there are no small stones or pieces of grit among them. Add them to a saucepan with about 400g water, bring to the boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until softened. Drain and rinse.
5. Add the lentils back to the pot with the butternut squash (cooking them separately ensures that the lentils don’t add any foam to your soup), and mix well to combine. Spoon between a third and half of the soup into a blender jug with the miso paste and blend until creamy. Alternatively, remove the same quantity of soup and use an immersion blender to blend it to smooth.
6. Stir the blended soup back to the pot, warm, and serve in warmed bowls with some parsley, additional chilli flakes, and nutritional yeast if desired.

Cauliflower soup with roasted potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, and red pepper

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This is a thick, luxurious soup with some additional texture, flavour and colour added by a layer of roasted vegetables. The cauliflower gives the soup good density, and its surface tension is increased by the arrowroot. The thinly sliced potatoes work like a raft distributing the weight of the roasted vegetables, themselves lightened by loosing their water weight through roasting.

For the roasted vegetables

4 small yellow potatoes, thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 small red pepper, cored, seed and thinly sliced (about 1/2 cups)
1 scallion, minced (reserve about 3″ of green for garnish)
2 cups of shredded cabbage
4 small cremini mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced (about 50g)
1T of cooking oil
2t of lemon juice
1/2t of coarse sea salt
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

For the soup

1T of cooking oil
1/4t of coarse sea salt
1T of garlic, minced
3 cups of cauliflower florets
2 cups of vegetable stock
2 cups of unsweetened soy milk
2T of nutritional yeast
1T of arrowroot powder whisked with 2T of water
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Start with the roasted vegetables, then make the soup

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Slice the potatoes in about 1/8″ slices, lengthwise. Reserve the ends; throw them in with the soup.
Slice the red pepper in about 1/4″ slices, and the mushrooms in about 1/8″ slices.
Mince the scallions and shred the cabbage (I use coleslaw mix).
Whisk the oil, lemon juice and sea salt.
Toss the sliced vegetables in their lemon and oil dressing.
Spread the vegetables evening on an oven pan with sides.
Roast for about 30 – 40 minutes or until everything is lightly browning.
Season the vegetables to taste.
While the vegetables cooking, make the soup.
Bring the oil to heat with 1/4t of coarse sea salt.
Add the garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
Add the cauliflower and potato ends and saute for about 5 minutes until the pan is lightly browning.
Add the stock and the soy milk.
Return the pan to a low boil and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.
Add the nutritional yeast.
Puree the soup.
Season to taste.
Whisk the arrowroot with the water.
Return the soup to low heat.
Add the arrowroot mixture slowly stirring continuously until it thickens.
Let the soup stand about 5 minutes and let the vegetables rest at least five minutes before serving.
To serve, arrange the potatoes in a thin layer on the surface of the soup (like a raft).
Carefully spoon the other roasted vegetables onto the potatoes, trying not to sink them, although if they sink a little, it’s not a crisis. You should still have enough vegetable to make a nice, nuanced presentation.
Garnish with the sliced scallions greens.

Makes two large bowls or four smaller ones.