Non-Cream Creamy Cauliflower Soup

I don't know about you but I'm constantly being pressured to cook healthy by my family. Their comments range from "you'll live longer" to "you look so much younger when you're thinner". But I think and hope that the real reason is they love my simple and natural approach to cooking.

I haven't always been a simple and natural cook. I use to be a simple and pre-packaged cook. And I LOVED it! I use to amaze my dates in college with what I now call homemade pre-packaged recipes. For instance, one of my signature dishes was a Mexican casserole that contained canned enchilada sauce, canned mushroom soup, canned olives, canned chiles, and canned salsa. From the plastic containers, I used cheese, tortillas (which I admittedly cut into triangles), and sour cream. I opened all the cans and threw them in my crock pot along with the cheese and tortillas. I would then brown a pound of ground beef and dump that in the pot as well. After 8 hours on low, I emptied the contents into a casserole dish, decorated the top of the dish with sour cream and pre-packaged guacamole. Finally I opened a bottle of BV wine and viola!! International date night! My roommates loved the leftovers (use to beat the heck out of the typical tuna and egg salad sandwiches we use to eat 3 nights a week for dinner) and my dates frequently were impressed. Of course I could never tell if it was the wine or the food that impressed them. Now, I know it was the wine.

But now I also know that I do impress my family with my simple and natural approach to cooking. How do I know that? Because they are constantly asking me for my recipes. Which takes us to today's blog - non-cream creamy cauliflower soup. This is a simple, natural, easy and fast cooking soup. Plus the leftovers, when there are any, can be used as a binder for casseroles which is handy for my ever conscience healthy family members. As a side note, it's almost all Paleo which seems to be a direction my cooking is taking my these days. I do use pre-packaged chicken stock because it is convenient. But in a later blog, I will make my version of chicken soup in which I will create my own stock. That stock can be used in this recipe, obviously.

For now, let's just dive into my "almost" paleo non-cream creamy cauliflower soup. For this batch, I used a medium cauliflower, 1 medium onion, 2 shallots, garlic, 3 cups of shitake mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, and chicken stock. Omitted from the picture is apple cider vinegar which I used as an after thought. You'll see where it was used later in this blog.


The preparation for this soup is SUPER easy. Chop the onions and shallot and garlic (if you plan to use fresh garlic). I like using minced garlic from a bottle. Ok, so it is pre-packaged - old habits are hard to break but the ingredients are garlic and olive oil so what's the harm? Pretty simple. Anyway the veggies do not have to be chopped small because we are going to eventually blend the mixture. Once all participants are chopped, place your stock pot (I use a 6 quart cast iron dutch oven) on a medium high heat and throw in some olive oil to cover the bottom. I like to add 2 TBS of butter but don't tell that to my family (D'OH!!). Once the oil and butter are melted, dump the onions, shallots, and garlic in. Saute these veggies for 5 minutes or so until the onions, shallots and garlic are well infused with oil and starting to get soft.


Once soft, throw in the shitake mushrooms, stir, and saute for another 5 minutes. Here is where I decided to add a few TBS of apple cider vinegar. I did this because the stock pot needed to be deglazed as I noticed some of the mushrooms and veggies decided to stick to the bottom. In hindsight, the apple cider vinegar added a bit of sweet tang to the soup. I'm glad I did this and encourage it as part of the recipe. But note that the soup will come out fine without it.


At this point, the veggies are nice and soft, the pot is deglazed, and it's time to throw in the main event - cauliflower. Preparation of the cauliflower is super easy as well. I used a medium cauliflower and after removing the leaves, I simply pulled off the flowerettes and rinsed them under water. Again, it doesn't matter how big they are or what shape they're in because eventually we are going to blend everything. So throw those bad boys on top of your veggies in the stock pot.


Next, stir the veggies with the cauliflower so that everyone in the pot is all oiled up. Now, you want to "saute" the cauliflower for 5 minutes or so in order to get a nice even coat of the saluted veggies on your cauliflower. This step seems a bit weird but take my word for it, spend 5 or 10 minutes and "stir the pot". The cauliflower will get all happy with your onions, shallots, garlic, shrooms, and apple cider vinegar. The longer you do this, the more infused the cauliflower will be. Once you feel everyone in the pot is nice and happy and ready to party, add some salt and pepper. I like a lot of pepper myself and not a lot of salt. But you will need to add them both. How much? Hmmm, I play it by ear and eye. I grind enough pepper so that each flower has a some pepper on it. I grind 1/4 amount of salt as I used pepper. For all you math and science types out there, that's a 1 to 4 ratio of salt to pepper. Nice?

Add enough stock so that everyone in the pool is swimming. Cover the pot and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes until the cauliflower is fork tender.


When fork tender, it is now time to blend. I scoop out the solids and fill the blender up about 3/4 of the way. Then I add the liquid so that all the veggies in the blender are once again covered with the happy juice.


You're almost home!! I pulse the mixture on/off for about 15 seconds in order to get the consistency I like. Your mileage may vary at this point. If you like chunkier soup, pulse less. If you like thinner soup, pulse more. Whatever you do, when you're happy with your consistency, pour the blended mixture into a large sauce pan. Repeat with the remainder of the solids and liquids from the original stock pot until everyones happy, blended, and in the sauce pan.


Me being a pepper guy, I like to now grind a little more pepper on top of the soup once in the sauce pan. You should turn the heat up on the sauce pan to medium after pepper is added and stir. You want the pepper IN the party, not just on the top. Once the soup is simmered, it is ready to serve. Spoon the soup in a cup or bowl and sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley and/or a squirt of pepper sauce on top to kick it up a notch if you like. Or not!! Enjoy!