Cream of cauliflower soup: velvety, with nutmeg, ready in 40 minutes
Cauliflower cooked in a small amount of stock with onion, garlic and a potato, blended smooth and seasoned with nutmeg and lemon. There should be just enough liquid to barely cover the vegetables: that is how the soup gets thick with only a little cream. Cauliflower cooks briefly, because overcooked it starts to smell of sulphur and ruins the whole pot.
Your own work in that: 17 min.
- Cutting 10 min
- Cooking 23 min
- Blending and serving 7 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneBreak up the cauliflower
Break the cauliflower into florets, peel the tough skin off the stalk and slice it: it is sweet and worth keeping. Set aside a handful of small florets for the garnish. Peel and dice the potato.
Ingredients: 1 pcs cauliflower · 1 pcs potato · 1 pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 30 g butter · 800 ml vegetable stock · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 pinch nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp white pepper
Florets, peeled stalk, a handful for the topSoften the onion and garlic
Melt 20 g of the butter in a pot and cook the chopped onion 5 minutes, until soft and translucent but not browned: browned onion would tint the soup's creamy white. Add the garlic for the last minute.
Translucent, not brownedCook briefly
Add the cauliflower and potato, pour in stock to barely cover the vegetables. Simmer covered 15–18 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender when pierced. No longer: overcooked cauliflower starts to smell of sulphur.
Ingredients: 1 pcs cauliflower · 1 pcs potato · 1 pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 30 g butter · 800 ml vegetable stock · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 pinch nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp white pepper
TipMeanwhile fry the reserved florets golden in a pan in the remaining butter and toast the seeds in a dry pan. They turn a smooth purée into a dish with texture.
Barely covered with stock, eighteen minutesBlend
Blend smooth, 2 minutes. Add the cream, nutmeg, lemon juice, salt and white pepper. Heat until it just starts to bubble (do not boil hard) and taste: the lemon should lift the flavour, not be noticeable itself.
Two minutes to velvetServe
Into bowls, with the fried florets, toasted seeds and chives on top. With croutons or bread. Keeps 3 days in the fridge; when reheating do not let it boil hard, or the cream may split.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp sunflower seeds · ½ bunch chives
Florets, seeds, chives
Before you start
With cheese
100 g grated hard cheese or 50 g blue cheese stirred in after blending: a cauliflower cheese soup, far more filling.
From roasted cauliflower
Roast the florets 25 minutes at 220 °C with olive oil before they go in the pot: a darker, nuttier soup, quite different in flavour.
Without cream
Instead of cream, a spoon of butter and half a cup of milk, or coconut milk. The potato gives body anyway.
