So I was in our garden a couple of weeks ago and spotted the most magnificent Cauliflower. It was late in the afternoon, the birds were singing and the beginning of the golden afternoon light was just starting to dance across the garden, the world just seemed to make perfect sense!
(Freshly harvested straight from our garden)
I quickly grabbed our trusty garden knife and carefully cut the Cauliflower off its stalk, grabbed some fresh thyme and bay from the garden then headed back to our little test kitchen to make the very freshest of Cauliflower soups, Taste Byron Bay style!
(Freshly harvested ingredients always taste better)
INGREDIENTS:
1 large cauliflower
3 brown onions – peeled and cut into large pieces
3 garlic cloves – peels and cut into half
1/2 bunch thyme (tie with kitchen twine)
2 tbs ground cumin
4 bay leaves
50g butter
100ml pure cream
extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
salt and pepper
goats cheese to garnish
1/2 bunch chervil
METHOD:
We’re going to make a white vegetable stock first for our soup, alternatively you can skip this step and use a good quality chicken stock if you’d prefer.
- preheat your oven to 180 celcius
- cut the cauliflower into large chunks – keeping the stalk pieces separate as we will be using the stalk pieces for the vegetable stock
- take half the cauliflower and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper – sprinkle with ground cumin, salt and pepper – drizzle with EVOO and place in the above for approx 50 mins until lightly golden
- place a large stock pot (6-8 litre pot is good) on the stove and heat to a medium / high heat
- once hot add some EVOO and butter – stir then add your cauliflower stalks, eschallots, garlic and bay – season with salt and pepper
- stir over a medium heat to sweat / cook down the vegetables – you want to release the natural sugars and extra flavour without allowing the vegetables to get any colour
- once the vegetables have softened – fill the pot with cold water add the thyme parcel – tie the thyme parcel to the side of the pot – bring to the boil
- once boiling – reduce to a simmer and skim the stock – allow to simmer gently for approx 20-30mins
- strain the stock and discard the vegetables and thyme – clean the original stock pot and transfer the stock back to the pot
- add your raw and oven roasted cauliflower pieces – bring to the boil – thens simmer for approx 20mins
- you want the cauliflower to be cooked through but still holding its shape
- remove from the heat – take out 3 cups of the cooking liquid and keep aside – blend with a stick blender – add back in some of the cooking liquid if the soup is too thick
- adjust the seasoning and serve with a wedge of goats cheese and garnish with a a sprig of chervil
(we like our soup thick and hearty – topped with goats cheese of course!)
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
- this soup is really lovely with goats cheese and some warm crusty bread with lashings of butter
- you can also go super fancy and drizzle over some truffle oil to pimp up your soup
- if you remove much of the cooking liquid at the end i.e. just before blending you can make a cauliflower puree using the same cooking method!
TIPS:
- it is important not to cook the vegetables too much in the first step – as you want the vegetables to remain white i.e. you are not trying to caramelise them
- you can freeze any leftover soup – simply cool it down in the fridge then freeze in suitable containers
- if you don’t like cumin – I would still recommend oven roasting half the cauliflower as it adds a really lovely depth of flavour
(we love oven roasting half the cauliflower with some cumin, EVOO, salt and pepper to add flavour)
What is your favourite soup to make at home?
Enjoy!
T x
