Cauliflower Cream Soup

Name: Cauliflower Cream Soup Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Cauliflower 1 kg; Cold water 1.5 l; Onion 1; Carrot 1; Celery stalk 1-2; Cream (20-30%) 250 ml; Salt to taste; Bay leaf 1-2; Dried chili 1 small pod; Dried lemongrass 1 tbsp (if you have it); Black peppercorns a few; Dried soup roots 1 tbsp (5 g); Butter a small piece; Parsley a sprig for garnish

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30 mins

Thick first courses called “cream” soups are a category of their own. They are usually considered a kind of puree soup, which is more or less right. Dietary and therapeutic nutrition always includes dishes like this: they are nourishing, very easy to digest and simple to make.

Thick pureed soups are usually made from boiled vegetables. Sometimes chicken is used as the meat component. The main technique is blending the vegetables into a puree, which kitchen blenders and choppers make easy. A long time ago the mass was ground with graters and meat grinders, or simply mashed with whatever was at hand.

These thick pureed dishes are usually distinguished. Puree soups are made of finely blended ingredients thinned with broth to the right consistency. Notably, spices, even when the recipe calls for them, are often added directly to the puree. A more interesting option is cream soup, where the blended ingredients are thinned with milk or cream.

The vegetables most often used for cream soup are onion and carrot, potato, cauliflower and broccoli. Basically, they are vegetables that can be blended into a puree with no fibers, bits of skin or large hard pieces left. Foods that go well with milk are used as well.

European cuisines usually use crème fraîche, cream or double cream, a high-fat dairy product. For home cooking, use store-bought natural cream with 20-30% fat, which gives the best result.

We make cauliflower cream soup by boiling the florets in water with spices. As additional vegetables we use carrot, onion and green celery stalks. So the spices do not float around in the finished dish, we put them in a sachet bag and throw it away once the vegetables are cooked. To boost the cream flavor in the soup, we sometimes add a piece of fresh butter.

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Ingredients

4 servings

For the soup
Cauliflower 1 kg
Cold water 1.5 l
Onion 1
Carrot 1
Celery stalk 1-2
Cream (20-30%) 250 ml
Salt to taste
Spices for the bag
Bay leaf 1-2
Dried chili 1 small pod
Dried lemongrass 1 tbsp (if you have it)
Black peppercorns a few
Dried soup roots 1 tbsp (5 g)
For serving
Butter a small piece
Parsley a sprig for garnish

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the vegetables and spices

Creamy cauliflower soup is a tasty and nourishing first course. Use the best and freshest vegetables you can find. The cauliflower should be firm, with no signs of long storage and a pleasant, almost white color. Look at the green leaves at the bottom that hug the florets: they should be fresh, not wilted.
Put the spices in a sachet bag or tie them in a piece of clean cloth: for a pleasant, piquant flavor, I recommend 1-2 bay leaves, a small pod of dried chili, 1 tbsp of dried lemongrass if you have it, a few black peppercorns and 1 tbsp of dried soup roots (5 g). Then no bits of herbs and pepper will float in the finished soup.
Peel the onion and carrot and cut them into cubes. Dice the celery stalk too.

Cooking the vegetables

Firm vegetables take a bit longer to cook than the tender cauliflower florets, so start by cooking the carrot, onion and celery.
Put the vegetables and spices in a pot, pour in 1.5 l of cold water and set it over high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 mins.
Use a knife to cut off the florets, leaving stems 3-5 cm long. Add the florets to the pot and cook for no more than 5 mins, until soft. Allowing for the time the cauliflower needs, the firm vegetables will be fully cooked.

Puree and cream

The cauliflower cream soup should be thick and completely smooth. You will need a blender, an amazingly useful kitchen gadget.
Blend the vegetables into a puree. Pour all the vegetable broth into a small pot, since you will need it if the soup has to be thinned to the right consistency, or to make vegetable risotto for breakfast. Throw away the bag of spices. Use the blender to puree all the cooked vegetables until smooth.
Pour all the puree into a pot and add the cream. Try to use natural cream, otherwise the soup will most likely have visible grains that look like cottage cheese. Thin the soup further with the remaining broth, to whatever final consistency you like. I added about a full glass of broth. Salt the soup to taste.
Put the soup on the heat and, stirring, bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and, stirring constantly, cook over very low heat for 3-4 mins. After that it is completely ready.

Serving

Ladle the soup into bowls, or better still, small ceramic bowls. There is no need to add herbs, though a sprig of parsley makes a nice garnish. I recommend adding a small piece of butter before serving.
Soups like this are often served with sweet croutons or plain croutons. Some recipes add grated semi-hard cheese to the soup. You can make a vegetarian version using almond milk or coconut cream. In addition to the spices, you can use marjoram instead of lemongrass.

Calories and macros

210 kcal

Serving ≈ 440 g

Protein7 g15% of kcal
Fat13 g58% of kcal
Carbs14 g27% of kcal

100 g48 kcalProtein 1.7 gFat 3 gCarbs 3.1 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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