Polish cauliflower soup with sour cream: whole florets, a root-vegetable stock
A summer soup from the cauliflower every August market stall is piled with: florets cooked briefly in a chicken and root-vegetable stock so they stay whole and never smell of cabbage, potatoes, carrot, sour cream with flour at the end and a pinch of nutmeg. The whole secret is ten minutes for the cauliflower, not one more: overcooked, it collapses and turns sulphurous.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Stock 35 min
- Vegetables cooking 15 min
- Cauliflower 10 min
- Sour cream and seasoning 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake the stock
Cover the chicken, carrot, parsley root, celeriac, leek and spices with water, bring to the boil, skim, salt and simmer 35 minutes. Lift out the meat and vegetables: dice the carrot and parsley root and set aside, pick the meat off the bones. Strain the stock into a clean pot.
Ingredients: 2 pcs chicken legs or wings · 2000 ml water · 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs parsley root · 1 pcs celeriac, a piece · 1 pcs leek, white part · 1 pcs bay leaf · 3 pcs allspice berries · 1½ tsp salt
TipFor a meat-free version, a litre and a half of good vegetable stock and the same vegetables simmered in it for 20 minutes is enough.
A light stock, 35 minutes, vegetables set asideBreak up the cauliflower
Wash the cauliflower and break it by hand into small florets, the size of a walnut; peel the stalk and slice it thinly, it goes in too. Small florets cook evenly and fit on a spoon.
Ingredients: 1 pcs cauliflower · 400 g potatoes · 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 1 tbsp plain flour · 20 g butter · 1 pinch nutmeg · ½ tsp black pepper · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley or dill
Walnut-sized florets, the stalk in slicesCook the potatoes in the stock
Add the potatoes in 1.5 cm dice to the stock together with the sliced stalk and cook 12 minutes, until almost tender. Potatoes need more time than cauliflower, so they go in first.
Potatoes and stalk firstAdd the cauliflower for ten minutes
Drop in the florets and the reserved carrot and parsley root. Cook uncovered, 8–10 minutes, until a fork pierces the florets but they hold their shape. Uncovered, because the sulphurous smell of brassicas escapes with the steam.
TipCauliflower cooked a few minutes too long starts to collapse and smells of old cabbage. Test with a fork from the eighth minute and take it off the heat as soon as it is tender.
Uncovered, until tender, no longerFinish with sour cream
Whisk the sour cream with the flour until smooth, temper with three ladles of hot soup, pour into the pot and bring to the boil, stirring, 2 minutes. Add the butter and the chicken meat.
Sour cream with flour, temperedSeason and serve
Season with nutmeg, pepper and salt; cauliflower soup likes more salt than you'd think. Sprinkle with parsley or dill. Serve at once; it keeps 2 days in the fridge, reheat without boiling so the cauliflower doesn't soften completely.
Nutmeg, pepper, parsley
Before you start
Cream of cauliflower
Blend without the carrot, with one more tablespoon of butter and 100 ml whipping cream (30%). A few fried florets and croutons on top.
With dill and pasta
A handful of small pasta or egg-drop noodles cooked separately instead of the potatoes, dill instead of parsley.
Without sour cream
A tablespoon of butter and 100 ml milk instead of the sour cream and flour: a lighter, milder soup with the cauliflower more to the fore.
