Curried Cauliflower Soup

Last week I bought an enormous cauliflower for the princely sum of 50p at the veg stall on the market; having used some in a cheesy cauli and broccoli bake I still had more than half of the monster left. When in doubt…soup!

I’m going through a period of curry type spices in almost everything I cook at the moment; it could have something to do with the on-going weather which is cold, damp, grey and miserable. All I seem to want right now is food to warm me up from the inside so I decided to use my usual curried parsnip soup recipe for this and just subbed the cauli for the parsnip; despite my slight misgivings it worked really well and, in fact, I think I actually prefer the cauli version.

I should warn you this makes quite a lot of soup but it freezes well.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, peeled

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 medium potato, peeled

2 sticks of celery, finely chopped

700g cauliflower in florets
1 tbsp curry paste
1.5l stock

chopped coriander

 

Fry the chopped onion gently in the oil in a really large saucepan for 5 minutes; add the chopped garlic and fry for another minute or two. Stir in the curry paste then stir in the chopped potato, celery and cauliflower florets (reserve one cauli floret); stir to coat in the curry paste then pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down, put the lid on and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Divide the reserved cauli floret into tiny pieces and blanch in boiling water for a minute or two.

When the soup is cooked blitz with a stick blender until smooth, you may need a little more stock, and serve with a scattering of chopped coriander (you'll have noticed I had to use parsley - forgot to buy any coriander...duh!) and a few tiny blanched cauli pieces.

 

Serves 6 (or even 8) generously

Spiced Cauliflower and Almond Soup

I’ve rarely met a soup I didn’t like and I liked the look of this one as soon as I saw it! It was the perfect lunch for a damp chilly January day with a chunk of fresh seedy bread followed by yogurt and fruit.

Needless to say I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter (I never do!) but I always think the odd tweak here and there is a good thing. I added a large chopped onion and two crushed cloves of garlic to the pan before adding the cauliflower; I also needed to add quite a bit more stock than the recipe stated, probably about another 500ml, it would have been the consistency of cake-mix otherwise!

Mr Simply Veg has been struggling with a cold for the past week or more; he said this warmed him up nicely and the harissa helped clear his head. So there you are - food and medicine all-in-one, what more could you ask for?