Simple Cooking: Cream Of Roasted Cauliflower Soup

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Aug 14, 2013 4:40PM

Photo credit: Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist

Typically, Chicago summers are too hot for making soup, unless you want to serve one cold as a nice summer treat. This summer has been one of the mildest in recent memory, making it too cool to make a chilled soup. But that didn’t stop me from firing up the stove and oven and making this simple soup adapted from Parade magazine.

I decided to roast the vegetables in this recipe for a bit before adding to heated dashi stock. Roasting the vegetables releases some of the sweetness trapped inside, making for a richer flavored soup and an overall better eating experience.

Cream of Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
1 medium head of cauliflower, cored and florets removed
2 leeks with two inches of green, root removed and sliced diagonally.
1 rib of celery, sliced.
2 Tablespoons finely minced garlic
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
6 cups dashi stock (see our recipe on making dashi here)
Juice of half a lemon
1 cup of half-and-half
3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dress the cauliflower, leeks and celery in a bowl with the olive oil and roast in the oven 25-30 minutes, until soft. Heat the dashi, garlic, ginger and curry powder over medium heat on a stove until simmering, reduce to low heat.

When the vegetables are done, transfer to the dashi mix, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Transfer the vegetables with a slotted spoon to a food processor and puree, adding half-and-half as needed.

Serves 2-4.