Is there anything better than cauliflower soup?

Well, there’s chocolate, I guess.

And doughnuts.

And apple crumble doused liberally in extremely vanilla-y custard.

But I digress.

Cauliflower soup is the bees knees of soups and has been a favourite since forever and best of all it is piss-easy to make.

Ingredients:

1. 1 Large head of cauliflower (Or as much as you want, really.)
2. 1 ltr chicken/vegetable stock (For the lazibums around, just buy a carton. For the cooking aficionados, spend a day making stock from scratch and laud it over the rest of us.)
3. 1 TBSP caraway seeds (Even if you hate caraway seeds, like I do, they need to go in this soup as they do something to the flavour of the cauliflower that is magical.)
4. Salt and pepper to taste (A good, big sized pinch for a big pot.)
5. Optional: Milk, evaporated milk, cream, cheese, etc. (Will discuss later.)

Method:

• Roughly chop up your cauliflower and throw it in the pot. Give it a bit of a rinse if you’re one of those annoying “I only buy organic” people and your cauliflower is still liberally sprinkled with the poo of fairies and unicorns.
• Pour in your stock until it just covers the cauliflower. If needed, you can top up with water or more stock.
• Throw in your caraway seeds.
• Turn the stove onto a medium-high heat and cook the shit out of it until the cauliflower is easily mushable with a spoon. MUSH! You can leave it rustic like I do with most bits still intact or you can get your stick blender our and make it smooth. That all depends on your visual taste.
• Check your seasoning at this point. Chuck in some salt if you think you need it.

Now, the soup is entirely edible at this point and if a quick, tasty meal was what you were after then this with a couple slices of buttered toast is delightful.

If you want to beef it up a little you can do the following:

• Make a rue (white sauce) with cheese and cook it into the soup or;
• Throw in a bottle of cream and call it “Cream of Cauliflower Soup” (this is both decadent and tasty) or;
• Pour in some evaporated milk (low fat, regular, dairy-free, whatever you like) for that gentle balance between broth and cream. This is my personal favourite.

All of the above additions work really well if you want to go a bit fancy and blend the soup smooth.  This is a great starter or just a comfort dish on it’s own. Try dipping garlic bread into it.

OMFG-YUM.

Just a side note, this particular recipe makes a very light, liquid soup; it’s not meant to be thick. It’s the “broke student” version of several recipes you can find online.  If you’ve only got a couple dollars, this makes a BIG pot that can keep you going for a while.  If you want something a little more sumptuous, add in some starchy potato, onion, garlic and butter for richness.