One unfortunate side effect of getting the family together for the holidays is getting the family’s germs together too. It seems that every holiday season I fall victim to the season’s latest respiratory virus. This season was no different, the last day of my two week vacation I woke up in the middle of the night with the tell-tale sore throat and swollen lymph nodes.
One of the only good things about being home sick is lying on the couch watching endless TV while eating soup. This is of course better when someone (like your mommy) is there to take care of you and fix your soup for you. In my unfortunate situation, where both my mommy and boyfriend live 4 hours away, I am left to fend for myself.
So, I was browsing old pins on my Pinterest, I found this recipe for cheesy cauliflower soup and decided it looked good and not too hard to make. Now this season I was fortunate enough to only acquire the common cold and not influenza, I know this because I was able to drag myself to the store to buy what I needed for the soup. For those of you wondering how to differentiate between a cold and the flu, an easy way is to ask yourself if you feel like you’ve been hit by a bus or not. If the answer is yes, and you have a fever, you likely have the flu.
I changed the original recipe a bit, using three kinds of cheese and substituting half the salt for celery salt. Here’s what I used:
Start by cooking the sliced leeks in oil, I used my wok, but a large sauce pan would have been smarter. Keep in mind I was sick…
While the leeks are cooking, chop up the cauliflower. I did a rough chop on mine, depending on how chunky you want your soup to be, or if you want to use an immersion blender on it or not later, will dictate how finely you chop your cauliflower.
When the leeks are soft, after about 5 minutes, add the cauliflower, water, 2 cups of milk, bay leaf, salt and pepper. You may notice that I forgot to add the water at this point…I remembered later. Bring this to a boil while stirring it. When it boils, remove the bay leaf, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the cauliflower is soft. This took me about 10 minutes, but probably wouldn’t have taken so long if I would have remembered half the liquid. When the cauliflower is soft, this would be a good time to use and immersion blender to smooth out the cauliflower chunks if you want.
Whisk together the flour and ½ cup of milk, add this to the simmering mixture when the cauliflower is soft. Stir until it becomes thicker.
Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice and cheese, stir until the cheese is melted. This is where I remembered to add the water.
At this point you should have a delicious chunky, cheesy cauliflower soup, ladle it into some bowls and enjoy!
The only other time I have used leeks is in fondue, turns out they add great flavor to soup also!
Like any good soup, this makes great left overs for taking to work!
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cups chopped cauliflower (about 1 head)
- 2 leeks, white and light green parts thinly sliced
- 2 ½ cups milk
- 2 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon celery salt
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 3 tablespoons flour
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ½ cup white sharp cheddar, shredded
- ½ cup sharp cheddar, shredded
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- Cook the leeks in oil over medium heat in a large sauce pan for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft
- Add the cauliflower, water, 2 cups of milk, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring this to a boil while stirring it
- When it boils, remove the bay leaf, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the cauliflower is soft, about 8 minutes
- Whisk together the flour and ½ cup of milk, add this to the simmering mixture when the cauliflower is soft. Stir until it becomes thicker
- Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice and cheese, stir until the cheese is melted
- Ladle into bowls and serve!
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