roasted cauliflower and parsnip soup

This slow descent into cool weather, while unfortunate in that I'm always so bone cold, does have some side benefits. I'm a winter cook, really. The foods I like to make tend to be of the heartier variety and often involve turning the oven on.

This cauliflower and parsnip soup percolated in my brain for several weeks before I got around to making it. Strangely the first inspiration came from a cauliflower that had gone bad in my mother's fridge, and thinking about the fact that it was a vegetable that Bunny tolerates. I needed to come up with a way to make him actually like it. Clearly that was through a soup. Then I needed a stronger flavour to go with it, maybe with a bit of kick. Therein came the parsnip. The rest? Easy peasy.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
• 4 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch disks
• 2 sweet onions, peeled and quartered
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-3 inch sections
• 3 stalks of celery, cut into thirds
• 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 6-10 cups chicken or vegetable stock (or water, if that's what you have)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp + 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* F.
2. Spread parsnips on a baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tsp oil set time for 20 minutes, put the 'snips in the oven.
3. Meanwhile, heat a large dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat. Heat up the remaining oil.
4. Add onions, saute for about 10 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic, saute another two minutes.
5. Add carrots and celery to the onions. Pour stock over the vegetables until just barely covered in water. Place lid on pot, bring to a simmer.
6. After 20 minutes, spread cauliflower florets over parsnips and place in the oven for another 20 minutes.
7. When cauliflower and parsnips are done in the oven, carefully transfer them into the stock pot. The parsnips particularly should have some caramelized sections on them from the olive oil. Add more chicken or vegetable stock to cover the mixture, replace lid and let the soup simmer for another 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the heat. With an immersion blender, carefully puree the mixture. (Alternately, transfer to a normal blender or food processor and puree). Continue adding stock to the mixture until you reach your desired thickness and texture for your soup.
9. Taste for seasoning. Depending on your stock you may need to add some salt, but that's all to taste.
10. Serve with nice crusty bread and enjoy!

soup weather begins

I'm not generally speaking a fan of winter. I don't like being cold. It's painful at times, to be honest, and when all I can feel of my hands or feet is ice, I'm a miserable person. But when cold weather starts to roll around, a part of me gets very excited. It means that there are things coming up that I'm looking forward to in the kitchen.

Just before Thanksgiving it finally got to be an appropriate time to make the first of my winter soups. Nothing to fancy, just a variation of my sweet and spicy butternut squash soup. So pretty much my favourite. Even better, my mom managed to scrounge up a bakery that does a pretty sweet baguette, so it was well accompanied. Was it ever delicious. Although I could, perhaps, have done without my soup being compared to the first ever bit of solid food I ever ate, but that's what happens when my mom's around. (Baby stories, all the time. Broccoli has been my favourite food since I was two and she has proof.)

Making this soup has the most marvelous affect: it inspires me to make even more soups. My mind is already churning with other flavour combinations I could soup-ify. My belly is going to be very happy this winter. So far, new new ideas include:

• roasted cauliflower and parsnip (the bite of the parsnip should help offset how mild the cauliflower is)
• carrot and ginger soup (it's nothing new, but it's good)
• beet soup (um, should I have been born Russian??)

I'm sure more will come to me, especially in the grocery store (as they always do) but I'm curious. What are your favourite soups? What are some awesome flavour combinations that I haven't thought out yet but clearly need to?

cauliflower cheese soup

Lately, I've felt like a bit of a magician of the cauliflower. It's a vegetable I grew up with; it appeared on the table in california mix frozen veggies, in a delightfully breaded and pan fried variety, and was just considered part of our normal week. I've always enjoyed the texture, but found the taste rather bland. Bunny on the other hand has not traditionally been a fan. He'll eat it, but he'd rather not.

In the past few months, I've been putting a new spin on the old vegetable. I think I've finally managed to change Bunny's mind on it. There have been a few key dishes that have done that:

• Fried cauliflower
• Cauliflower curry
• Broccoli and cauliflower gratin
• Cauliflower cheese soup

I'll have to dig up the recipe for that gratin sometime, because it's better than I can tell you. Rave reviews from guests. The fried cauliflower was an invention of my mothers: dip in egg then breadcrumbs and treat like a schnitzel. Cauliflower curry I may have shared before. (If not I promise I will, because it's amazing).

Cauliflower soup, though? That seems to be asking a lot of a vegetable that I just described as being a little bit bland in flavour. Obviously cheese mitigates that quite a bit, but it seemed a little bit crazy. I've had cauliflower soup in the past though, and found it pretty darn good.

Which was all besides the point, because I had a head and a half of cauliflower in the fridge (some of it was leftover orange cauliflower, because how could I not) that had already been written on our meal plan as Cauliflower Cheese Soup. There's no arguing with the menu plan.

It only seemed fitting to share.

Ingredients:

• 1 large head (or 1 1/2 small heads) of cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 parmesan rind
• 1 cup grated cheese
• I used a fairly even combination of mozzarella/cheddar/parmesan based on what was in my fridge. I'd leave the mozzarella out in the future. I also might go with a more nutty cheese next time
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a soup pot or dutch oven heat olive oil over medium high heat. When oil is hot, add garlic and onions to the pot. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Saute for 3-5 minutes, until onions are translucent.
2. Add the carrots and celery, saute for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add cauliflower to the pot. Cover with the broth and bring to a boil. (Note: my broth did not fully cover my cauliflower at first. Don't worry about this.) Once everything heats to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low.
4. Add parmesan rind. This bit is just for flavour, and will be removed later.
5. Cover, and simmer for approximately 30 minutes. At this point, even if all the cauliflower has not been submerged in the liquid, with the lid on it will have been cooked through.
6. Remove and discard parmesan rind.
7. Blending time! If you have an immersion blender go wild. If not, you're like me and you get to transfer the soup in batches into your blender or food process. Blend until smooth and return to the heat.
8. With soup blended and heat reduced to low, slowly stir in the cheese. At this point you do NOT want the soup to boil, because that makes the cheese go all stringy.
9. Cut up some bread, butter it, and go nuts eating!

Notes:

• So my soups are very very thick. You might like yours thinner; if that's the case, keep some stock, or water, on reserve and add near the end of cooking (before you add the cheese) to thin things out.
• As I said, this was a bland-ish soup. We let the cheese do the flavouring, but you can add all the herbs or spices you like!
• Sad note: I went to find links to the fried cauliflower and cauliflower curry recipe ... and I realized I've not shared them yet. So I'll get on that, promise.

sweet and spicy butternut squash soup

For the past several months, I've been all about soups. They're so easy, and you can make them with anything. Pureed, you can have lovely vegetable bliss or you can have lovely chunks of meats, pasta and vegetables floating in a flavourful broth. In fact, pretty much any vegetables baked or cooked for an hour in stock and then put in the blender ends up in deliciousness.

One of my favourites, and a consistent hit with Bunny has been butternut squash soup. Ridiculously simple, and with such wonderful consistency it almost always seems to come out right. The squash is delicious in its own right (we love eating it roasted, or with pasta), and takes on such lovely sweet flavours if properly developed. I mean, roasted squash with a little bit of brown sugar or syrup? The carmelization that develops is out of this world.

Which got me thinking. Roasting squash for soup could create so much sweetness, I wanted something to balance it out and create a little bit more depth of flavour. Sweet and sour seemed obvious, but I'm not always a fan of that combination (unless it's in candy - then I am all over it) and I didn't really think sour would work with the squash. Inspiration hit in the form of Bunny deciding that he wanted to start eating more spicy food. Seriously, the man has been adding hot sauce to everything lately.

Sweet and spicy. That seemed like exactly what I wanted. I've tried to create this soup before - and it did not turn out well. This time, I seasoned things much more conservatively and I think that made all the difference, because it came out every bit as good as I'd hoped for. And then some.

Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash, cut into even 2 inch cubes
• 1 medium sweet onion, roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 medium cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 2 stalks celery, roughly chopped (optional - I didn't have any on hand but really wished I did)
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock OR 4 cups water and chicken bouillon
• Note: My goal was a slightly thinner soup, if you prefer a thicker puree, reduce this to 3 cups
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 - 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, based on your heat preference
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Spread cubed squash evenly on a lined (parchment paper or silicone) cookie sheet. Drizzle the squash with maple syrup. Season the squash with cayenne pepper and garlic powder.
3. Bake butternut squash for 1 hour, until the cubes begin to develop carmelized crusts.
4. While squash is baking, heat olive oil in a dutch oven or soup pot over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent or about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Adding the carrots and celery, continue to cook another 5 minutes.
5. Add stock to the pot, bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until squash is done cooking.
6. Remove squash from the oven. Using a blender or a food processor, you will want to work in two batches. Transfer half the squash into the bowl of the blender, followed by half the liquid and vegetables from the soup pot. Blend until smooth, and repeat with remaining ingredients.
1. Alternately, if using an immersion blender, transfer all the squash into the soup pot and blend to desired smoothness. I am envious.
7. Bring the soup up to a low simmer again, and taste for seasoning. This is the point to add salt/pepper/more cayenne if you desire. As well, you can add more broth at this point if the soup is too thick.
8. Serve. Enjoy. Eat with generously buttered crusty bread and smile a lot.

Final Notes:

There are so many ways to change this up.

• Swap out the maple syrup for brown sugar, or your sweetening agent of choice
• Add more or different vegetables into your soup stock. I almost want to add apples into this, but that's a whole different beast.
• When the squash is done roasting you can add it to the soup pot and let the whole thing continue to cook for another half hour or so. I've done this before, but don't find it makes enough of a flavour difference to bother with though.
• Change up the heat. Maybe you don't like cayenne. Change it out for jalepeno peppers, or chili powder or oil, or hot sauce. I really like the slightly sweet heat of cayenne with the maple syrup, but there are lots of combinations you could do.

soup tips & ramblings

Today's been a good/bad day. Bunny and I have both been a little bit edgy. I'm PMSy and stressy. My poor fiance has a chipped tooth that's giving him a heck of a lot of pain. It's made communication more of an important tool for us - remembering to hold our tongues instead of snapping, and taking more time to fully explain our points and making sure we understand each other and aren't reacting based on assumptions.

I love that we're both aware enough to say "I'm sorry if I was short with you earlier. My mood's been kind of down and xyz is what I think is going on. I shouldn't have taken that out on you." The awareness that sometimes if we've got our own shit going on, we can't read each other's minds and automatically know. That we have to tell each other what's going on. Then, you know, we try to be more aware of the other person's feelings and be a little bit more gentle with it.

Since Bunny's mouth is bothering him, we're going easy on dinner. Soup type easy, in fact. Pureed soup, so there is no chewing involved and nothing that could hurt my boy. We have home made soup once every couple of weeks, and sometimes it surprises me that we don't have it more, because they're both easy and delicious.

Today's soup? Leek and potato. Our standby is butternut squash (because it's so infinitely adaptable), but we've done barley-lentil, bean soup, broccoli cheddar (Bunny's going to do that one up again soon, I think), carrot and whatever else we can come up with.

The secret to a good vegetable soup is that they are honestly easy as pie. It's all about layers of flavour, and occasionally taking the time to develop more flavour. Pureed vegetable soup can be made with any vegetable, and all you really need is a good quantity of veg, liquid and a pot.

With no further ado, my favourite soup tips:

• Liquid!
• Keep the liquid levels lower than you think you should. Particularly for a cream or pureed soup, just cover your veg to start with. If you need more liquid you can always add.
• Don't use plain water. I mean, come on, water has no flavour to itself. Your liquid should be flavour packed. Suggestions include:
• Stock/broth - this is the easiest. Whether it's a few buillon cubes, or homemade stock, you get plenty of flavour
• Wines - pair to your ingredients. I love a nice white wine deglaze in a soup pan. Go drier than you might otherwise.
• Juice - ok, so don't dump Five Alive in your soup pot. But pure orange juice? Apple? Grape? Contrast or compliment the vegetables flavours in your soups.
• Starch water. If all else fails, use potato water. This is my mom's tip, and that little bit of starchiness makes a world of difference. Don't have pasta or potato water? Boil up some frozen veg and use that water. It absorbs some serious flavour.
• Herbs & Spices
• Duh! Always add some. Use what works for you. I have a few standbys - tarragon with mushroom, cumin and garlic with root vegetables
• Season this shit. Seriously taste your soup and make sure you have properly salted everything.
• Fresh herbs at the end to garnish add a touch of flavour as well as colour.
• Be creative with your vegetables. You don't just have to boil/simmer them in the soup pot. Do something to them first. Layer your flavour.
• Roast veggies. When I make squash soup I almost always roast the squash, which adds great depth. I love adding roasted garlic to recipes.
• Carmelize your onions. That brightens up any recipe, but adds real depth to soups. Be prepared for your soup to be darker than you expected, though.
• Additions! Add things to help your flavour. Suggestions include:
• Cheese rinds. Just like you would use in making stock, and remember to take the rind out before blending.
• Cheese! I mean, really, where would we be without broccoli-cheddar?
• Sauces & such. Seriously, consider adding a condiment. A great mustard, a touch of curry paste, worstershire sauce ... whatever condiment you like that works with the vegetables you chose, add some.
• Egg. This can add a really rich creaminess, but needs to be done very carefully.

Use your imagination. Be creative. Once you know the flavours you like, you can play around with them.