Cheesy Cauliflower Soup - Dairy Free? Yep, that‘s right. Dairy free. The cheesiness is in the flavour, not the ingredients and that flavour is YUM! Especially for those of us who still suffer from the occasional pang of cheese withdrawal.
As you know, I am always trying to get a wider range of veg into our diet, so when Mr T chose cauliflower to have as steamed veg with our corned beef the other night (recipe to come), I thought, hmmm. Mr T loves cauliflower with cheese sauce, which his mother used to make for him, and I occasionally made under protest as I am not a cauliflower fan, I don’t like the taste and I really don’t like the texture. But here it is. In my Cookie House, half a head of cauliflower waiting to be eaten. So I thought, okay, how can I turn this yukky thing into something yummy? And this is how I did it.
Ingredients
1 cup cashews
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 sticks celery, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 turnip, peeled and diced
1/2 head of cauliflower (about three cups of florets)
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 litre beef or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons coconut cream
dried chives and black pepper for garnish
Soak the cashews for at least four hours in the fridge.
In a medium sized pot toast the sesame seeds until they are golden, set aside in a small bowl. Pop your olive oil into the pot and sauté your onion and celery until translucent, a little browning is okay, but no scorched bits, it will make your soup bitter and this is a very delicate soup. Add the garlic, saute one more minute, then stir in the vegetables, stock, drained cashews and toasted sesame seeds.
Bring to the boil and then cook at a good rolling simmer until everything is tender, purée with a stick blender until very smooth, stir in the coconut cream, serve sprinkled with dried chives and freshly ground black pepper.
Both I, who is no cauliflower fan, and Mr T, who LOVES cauliflower cheese rated this as our new favourite soup (for this week), Mr T would like me to thicken it up and use it as a sauce in some crepes with crispy bacon. Hmmm.
Emma (Cookie House tadpole), suggested using it as a sauce for Mac n’ Cheese, which is one of her most favourite things.
This dish pleases me. This is one of those meals that tastes so decadently bad for you, but is the absolute opposite, look at those ingredients, the only one you could even think about raising an eyebrow at is the coconut cream. Yes, I am happy.
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