Friday, November 5, 2010

Cauliflower and broccoli soup

Cauliflower and broccoli soup is one of the most delicious comfort soups. Even though it is a bit tedious to make since there is a lot of vegetable peeling and chopping involved it is definitely worth the 45 minutes of prep time. Next time I’ll give my Cuisinart some workout, I think.
It is pretty well mix and match of what vegetables besides cauliflower, broccoli and onions you have available and what you like.
Potato, sweet potato, parsnip, leeks, asparagus and even turnip are some of other vegetables that I could have used.

In my last reincarnation of this soup I had about:

½ a head of cauliflower
½ head of broccoli
½ white onion
6 shallots
1 zucchini
2 stalks of celery
1 carrot
½ a head of medium celeriac
4 cloves of garlic


All finely sliced or chopped and totaling about 8 cups.

Heat 6 cups of chicken or beef stock in a pot.
Melt 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil in heavy bottom Dutch oven and add shallots and onions and sauté till translucent and then add rest of vegetables and sweat them for about 10 minutes. Add 1t (or to taste) of curry and mix well.
Add hot stock, cover and slowly simmer for about an hour. Using submersible blender puree to consistency that will leave some vegetable chunks intact. Taste for salt and add 35% cream, again, to taste and bring back to simmer. Remove from stove and serve with some toasted baguette slices rubbed with garlic.

2 comments:

Ron said...

I can hardly wait to try out your chinese style soups as well as your borsch. My mother used to make this soup and I could never make it the way she used to and unfortunately never got the chance to have her write down the recipe before she passed away.

Anonymous said...

Ron, as with any food, anywhere, you just can’t recreate what your mother or my mother made. All the ingredients are different, the water is nowhere close to what you had as a kid…There is no way to recreate anything exactly. You have no idea how many times I did try and failed. Let the memory be memory and just try new things. BTW, I just love soups!
Jerry