Every Sunday, regardless of the season, how many kids are home, or what kind of crazy day I have planned, I make soup. If I don’t it’s not Sunday according to my son Jonathan. I usually wake up earlier than everyone else on Sunday, I like the silence and the solitude and it lets me finalize what exactly my day will look like. A nice cup of Vanilla Coffee, while I curl up in our living room to enjoy the view, catch up on email, do a little surfing (yes, Pinterest and FoodGawker come to mind) get’s me off to a good start.
I always Meal Prep either Saturday or Sunday, usually Sunday and I always start with the soup, they are generally easy to prepare, and benefit from the longer slower cooking time that I get by doing it first. It also means if I’m by chance missing an ingredient I have time to pick another recipe to make. I have many family favourites, but I get bored and like to experiment with new recipes or new flavours to existing recipes. It’s the chef in me I guess.
Soup Sunday: Kicked Up Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
- Kicked Up Cauliflower Soup
- 2 medium onions chopped
- 2 medium carrots sliced
- 2 celery ribs diced
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/4 cup butter divided
- 1 medium head cauliflower cut into florets
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 5 Tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- fresh tarragon optional but delicious
Instructions
- In a soup kettle or Dutch oven, saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in 1/4 cup butter until tender.
- Add cauliflower, broth, parsley, salt, pepper, basil and tarragon.
- Pour in the broth
- Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Let cool and puree until very smooth.
- Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, melt the remaining butter. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk and whipping cream. Bring to a gentle, very gentle, boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened., add to cauliflower mixture.
- Cook for an additional 10 minutes over low heat until thickened, stir frequently to avoid the bottom from burning.
- Serve immediately sprinkled with freshly chopped Tarragon.
We had friends over on Saturday and I made this yummy soup for lunch. Everyone loved it! Even my brother who doesn’t like soup very much ate seconds! I didn’t have heavy cream on hand, so I subbed in coconut milk which worked great.