Cauliflower Soup is a rich and creamy delicacy that’s very easy to put together, with easily accessible ingredients (all you need is a quick run to the nearest grocery store, really). Its amazing taste comes mainly from the cauliflower and there are other fun things that add to that awesomeness like the carrot and celery garnishing, the amazing chicken or vegetable bouillon cube, the butter and milk that give the soup it’s mouthwatering creaminess, and a few other flavorful ingredients.
Why do we love the Cauliflower Soup so much?
Apart from how easy it is to put together, its entire preparation process takes only 30 minutes! Talk about fast food, except it isn’t fast-food, it’s so much healthier than fast food, especially with all those vegetable s in the mix!
Weight watchers, keto diet, and low carb diet fans will be very interested to know that this Cauliflower Soup recipe contains an estimated 44-80 calories per serving!
EQUIPMENTS:
All you’ll need in order to make this elegant and tasty dream of a recipe come true, equipment-wise, are:
One large bowl (or two)
A number of smaller bowls (for all your ingredients)
Two (2) large saucepans, and of course;
A stove
For the sake of being thorough, we’ll just go ahead and add the following to the list:
A knife
(You’ll need a proper one to slice your cauliflower, carrot and celery up, as the need presents itself.)
A multipurpose grater (for shredding up the carrots, as the need presents itself.)
A long-handed spoon
(This is a soup, after all. Stirring will occur and you’ll be using a large saucepan, so you can’t use a short-handed spoon.)
INGREDIENTS :
To prepare the Cauliflower Soup, you’ll need the following:
1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/4 cup chopped celery
2-1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons chicken or 1 vegetable bouillon cube
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of hot pepper sauce, optional
One important thing to know before you set out your ingredients is that this recipe is only good for about 8 servings. If you’re going to be feeding more mouths or you’re planning on making more servings at a time, you’re going to have to tweak the recipe a little.
Tweaking a recipe to accommodate your needs is really simple, but it’s a lot more complicated than just increasing the number of heads of cauliflower, or sticks of carrots and celery in this case. You’ll need to adjust the quantities of each and every ingredient stated above proportionately. Again, this is very easy but we know how things can get tricky in the kitchen very fast. So, if you need help with this, feel free to consult us by leaving a message in the comment section of this page and we’ll be sure to get back to you.
DIRECTIONS :
One thing we like to recommend at the start of each of our recipes is a clean and clear cooking space, for hygiene’s sake and to aid free range of movement as you recreate your culinary masterpiece. Another thing is how zero clutter creates space on your counter top for all the important ingredients you’ll be needing to make your dish, and how it’s bound to help free even your own mind. So, don’t let anything stop you. Go right ahead and clear out that clutter, clean up that cooking area and be free!
When you’re done, arrange all your ingredients (in the right quantities) into those small bowls we mentioned earlier (in the EQUIPMENTS section). This will make it easier and faster for you to follow the recipe. But do NOT mix any of those ingredients together until the recipe asks you to; it’s a very important rule.
Are you ready?
Take in a deep breath and let us begin!
In a large bowl, combine the cauliflower, carrot, celery, water and bouillon. (Now, you can mix the ingredients. The recipe has spoken!)
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender (do not drain). (You should stir the mixture lightly once every 5 minutes or so. STIR LIGHTLY, but do NOT crush! Especially if you want them to retain some form of crunch.)
In another large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper until smooth. (This is the part where you stir to your heart’s content.)
Gradually add milk and keep stirring. (Why we’re stirring so much is that this is a soup (Cauliflower Soup, remember), and it’s supposed to be considerably creamy and with all these particular ingredients.If you don’t stir the mixture consistently when it is over heat, it will clomp together, and we don’t want that to happen.)
Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat.
(This heat reduction is necessary for the Cauliflower Soup to simmer. Simmering is just leaving the thickened soup over low heat for some time – stirring can still be involved – to allow all those flavors to come together and develop.
There’s a theory about soups that the longer you leave them to simmer on low heat, the better it tastes. But we find that it usually holds truer for stews than soups, but in any case, some amount of simmering is still recommended in the preparation of the Cauliflower Soup, as it does make it taste better.)
Stir in the cheese until melted. (This is very important for the rich flavoring of the Cauliflower Soup as well as it’s creaminess.)
Add hot pepper sauce if desired. (Yes, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for, spicy food lovers! You have to stir it well into the cauliflower mixture, and let it simmer on the low heat for a few minutes (only a few minutes) in order to fully integrate the taste.)
Serve, dig in and enjoy!
Yield: 8 servings (about 2 quarts).