Monday, February 21, 2011

My Spiced Cauliflower Cheese Soup

Since so much of my time lately has been spent in the kitchen, I have decided to start to post some of my successful recipes! I hope you will enjoy trying some of these out as I post them.

It has been truly wonderful to once again have a kitchen that is my own to organize, maintain, and cook in. This has brought about a fresh inspiration regarding cooking for me. I have always loved to cook, with experimentation and improvisation. Soups are my favorite thing to cook, and my most successful. Lucas agrees.

The following soup recipe is my latest, a personal rendition of several that I found on the web, combined and altered due to my own personal taste and what I happened to have on hand at the moment. It is relatively fast and easy to make, and results in a rich, warming soup.

Spiced Cauliflower Cheese Soup:
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups cauliflower florets
1 1/2 cups chopped potatoes
2 garlic cloves chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. cumin powder
1/4 tsp. dill
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
4 oz. shredded pepper jack cheese

- In medium-sized soup pot, boil the cauliflower, potatoes, and garlic in water till soft, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat.

- To make rue, melt butter in medium-sized saucepan. Add flour and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Slowly add milk to flour mixture while stirring. Return to heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. You may need to increase temperature till it starts to boil for it to thicken.

- Add rue to veggies. Add salt, pepper and other spices. Stir well. Return soup pot to heat.

- Add shredded cheese, stirring well till melted.

- Serve with bread.

- Serves 4.

ENJOY! And please leave comments if you have suggestions or other ideas!

No comments: