If you've never made a cauliflower soup, you're truly missing something special. And this news is coming to you from someone who doesn't especially care for cooked cauliflower--I adore it raw or roasted, but have never had it boiled or steamed that didn't make me wince. Why is a soup different? Because cauliflower purees into something silkier and more velveteen than most vegetables, that's why. It seems creamy even before any actual cream is added, therefore very little actual cream is needed to give it that final polish.
I'm making lunch for some girlfriends tomorrow, and decided on trying this recipe from the new Essential New York Times Cookbook which I should post a review on after more extensive reading--it's quite impressive, and Amanda Hesser's intros to the recipes are uncommonly good reading. It will be served with a romaine/grapefruit/pumpkin seed salad and a crusty loaf of artisinal multigrain bread from a local bakery.
The recipe reminded me of another cauliflower soup I made long ago but haven't revisited in a decade. Then, I cooked cauliflower, a branch of celery, a carrot and chopped onion in chicken broth, pureed the lot, finished it with cream and then set a ball of butter which was full of finely chopped hazelnuts afloat on top for service. Before garnish, this recipe calls for just mushrooms, cauliflower, a clove of garlic, water, cream and a single clove of garlic. The garnish is intended to be roasted walnut oil, which sounds wonderful. Now, me who loves rich, intense flavors does not give up easily on things like chicken broth, but the other me who must be more careful these days found this recipe's vegetarian purity intriguing.
I borrowed from both camps, thinking the carrot and celery would, if nothing else, make my soup a warmer shade of beige but also believing it would have a more well-rounded flavor. I used four of the five cups of water reccomended in the NYT recipe because they called for the vegetables by weight and I have no idea how many cups a pound and a half of cauliflower would be--I don't have a kitchen scale. Since four cups adequately covered my vegetables, I reserved the right to add more after cooking if needed then the soup. It wasn't needed. Once I pureed the cooked mixture, I added a few pinches of salt and black pepper and 1/4 cup of half and half. I could have let it go right there to be honest, but I felt just a little more would be better, so in the end added a total of 1/2 cup. This recipe makes about 2 quarts, so on a per serving basis that's not much fat. Then I tested spoonfuls with tiny pinches of various herbs and spices--thyme, tarragon and mace, to name three, and found only the tarragon got along with rather than muddied the earthy flavors, but even then the soup surprisingly tasted more complex and complete without any of them. It's actually quite terrific.
Tomorrow, I'll add another touch of my own: a mushroom and walnut duxelle for garnish in addition to the walnut oil.
The recipe, then, with my revisions:
10 med-large mushrooms, sliced, about 1.5 cups
4 cups cauliflower pieces
1 carrot, peeled, in pieces
1 branch celery, in pieces
1 clove garlic
4 cups water
In a 5 quart sauce pan, heat about a tablespoon of oil then add the mushrooms. Once they've browned up a bit, add the vegetables and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until soft, about 15 minutes.
Puree in a blender until smooth, then add:
1/2 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste
Blend just a bit more to incorporate the new ingredients. Prepare the garnish:
6 to 8 mushrooms, finely chopped
2 Tblsp chopped walnuts
Pinch salt and pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp finely chopped parsley--just enough to add some green specks
Roasted walnut oil
Heat a tiny amount of oil in a skillet, then add the mushrooms. Brown and sweat the mushrooms until they've given up all their liquid, then add the walnuts, parsley and S & P. After ladling the soup into bowls, sprinkle some of the duxelle atop the hot soup and drizzle with walnut oil.