I’d been so looking forward to the cooler weather here. This summer was a stinker. It was sweaty and humid, and involved lots of frizzy hair and trying to stay as cool as possible. Also, wishing we had a pool.
Then the cooler weather arrived and I remembered what I loved about it; curling up in a doona, wearing warmer clothes and being able to exercise at any time of day. I forgot about the bugs that come with it though, and how it takes forever for little people to fight the bugs and get back to 100% health. It seems everyone has some sort of sniffle or cough going on at the moment.
You know what makes everything better? Soup. It soothes the soul. And it’s perfect for those nights when Hubby is on night shift and my desire to cook is at zero. Soup is good. I found this one on Taste.com.au and it’s beautifully comforting, and pretty much winter in a bowl.
Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
1 tbs olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets {just over 1kg}
500g potatoes, peeled & chopped
1 litre chicken stock
1/2 cup pure cream
Method
♥ Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until the onion has softened. Add cauliflower and potato and cook for 5 minutes.
♥ Add the stock and cover with the lid. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and let the soup simmer away until the cauliflower and potato are tender {around 20 minutes}. Take off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
♥ Use a stick blender to blend the soup until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add cream. Stir until all combined. Serve.
I concur – soup does make everything better. I can’t go past a good pumpkin soup although we have a lamb and vegetable soup (from the Aldi cookbook no less) which I know must be good because the dinner table is usually very quiet apart from the constant slurping. The soup is easy to make and stuffed with vegetables – double winner! Basic recipe is 750g lamb (chops cooked and diced or left overs from a roast), ALDI soup pack of veggies (onion, potato, carrot, turnip, parsnip and celery), 2tsp garlic, 1 ltr beef stock, can each of tomato soup, cannellini beans, chickpeas; handful or two of spinach leaves. Cook meat. Fry up onion and garlic, add all ingredients (except spinach) to the pot and bring to boil and then simmer covered for 30 mins. Salt and pepper as you like.
Oooh… I love soup season.
My best favourites are:
Donna Hays’ Lemon Chicken Rissoni Soup – this will cure everything from heartache to haemarrhoids. I make it with a supermarket cooked chook. Don’t forget the parsley & some lemon rind on top.
Chorizo & Lentil soup from taste.com.au
Rockpool’s Cream of Cauliflower Soup – this basically tastes like cauliflower cheese in soup format but is so so awesome.
YUM!!!
Yummm, I make a mean zucchini soup, nice and creamy. Will have to find the recipe. Hubby hates cauliflower unfortunately 🙁
Our favourite is pumpkin soup in the slow cooker – the whole house has a delicious smell all day!
I am loving the soup weather! I made a similar cauliflower soup the other week but without the cream (naughty naughty!) 😉
I decided to make cauliflower soup one day but instead of cream I added a GREAT BIG spoon full of cream cheese – oh so yum 😀
#nomnoms!