Curry Cauliflower Soup

Copyright 2007 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower (about 1 lb.), cut into florets
½ sweet onion or one small onion, diced
1 stalk of celery (about ¼ cup), diced
1 T yellow curry powder
1 t cumin
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
½ cup heavy cream
2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

In a large saucepan, warm olive oil over medium high heat and then add onion and celery. (You might want to add some salt to season your vegetables.) Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes to soften vegetables and then add curry. Cook the curry for about a minute to release the oils in the curry, and then add cauliflower pieces and stir to coat the curry around the cauliflower. (Be careful to watch the fire because you don’t want to scorch your curry or you’ll get a bitter taste.) Add broth, water and cumin and let cook at a simmer for 20-30 minutes until cauliflower is fork tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove saucepan from heat and puree the soup with a hand blender or place small batches into a blender* and puree until smooth. Add cream and season with more salt to desired taste. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and serve warm.

Makes 3 to 4 servings. Serve with hummus crostini.

* Do not place hot liquid in blender. Let the cauliflower cool first. And never fill blender or food processor by more than half.

TIP: For a holiday flair, you can garnish the soup with pomegranate seeds instead of pine nuts. The red from the pomegranate will be a nice color contrast with the soup, and the tart flavor from the pomegranate juice will add a twist with the spicy soup.

SOUP SALT: I find when making soup, it makes a difference seasoning with sea salt instead of table salt or more refined salt. For all my soups now, I use the grey sea salt (sel marin) from Brittany. But you can use any kind of sea salt and it’ll add a lot of flavor and body to your soup.