Cauliflower Soup (02/28/09) - Eh.

It has been referred to as the “Ugly Betty” of the vegetable garden. It is the crucifer often scorned by chefs and widely despised by children instructed to clean their plates before leaving the table. I speak, of course, of the lowly cauliflower - hated on, alternately, for its color (or lack thereof), its texture and its ability to bore the crap out of anyone eating it.

Personally, I love cauliflower. I’ve spent many a fall afternoon eating it raw off the plant at Lariland Farms in HoCo, Maryland. My pops used to steam it and then top it with a plain roux, imitating a cheesy sauce. I often consider it more a starch than a vegetable, but those nutritional contents don’t lie. It’s got allicin (good for preventing heart attacks and strokes), selenium (a nice immune strengthener), folate (needed for cell growth) and, of course, fiber. Oooo yeah.

My favorite application for this member of the “white” family (which interestingly includes bananas, mushrooms, onions and garlic) is cauliflower soup. I love it cold, hot, or luke warm served in a bowl, sippy cup or beer bong – whatever. It’s subtle, silky and, with the right amount of salt, can be sublimely sinful. (Note: I also like alliteration. Sometimes at the expense of substance.)

On Saturday, as I pondered the end of another winter, I realized that I’d not had any of this delicious concoction all season. I’ve got a good standby recipe which is literally just cauliflower, chicken broth, a little cream and some salt, but I wanted to try something new while still paying due homage to the main ingredient. After looking at a bunch of recipes online, cherrypicking those tips I thought valuable, I came up with the following ingredients:

1 medium-sized cauliflower head, chopped
3 youkon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
2 tbs minced shallots
½ cup chopped scallions
1 tbs fresh dill
32 oz chicken stock (by volume)
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp curry powder
1 tsp celery salt
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive Oil

Putting this together was too simple. Heat some oil in a large soup pot at medium high. Throw the onions, garlic, scallions and shallots in and sweat for about 7 minutes. Toss in the celery, potatoes, cauliflower and dill and cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies start to get tender. Salt it well and add the thyme, celery salt and curry powder as it’s all cooking together. Then pour in the chicken stock, pop on the lid, reduce the heat to medium/low and simmer for 20 minutes. You can take the resulting mixture and transfer it, one ladle at a time, to a food processor, but I’d rather hit it with my emersion blender and get it all done right there in the pot.

I gotta say, my whole family loved the soup, but I’m not sure I was 100% a fan of it. Don't get me wrong - I really liked the spicing. I was a little nervous about the interaction of the dill and the curry powder along with the cauliflower flavor, but it all came out surprisingly well balanced. The curry powder really just gave the soup depth and the dill make it fresh. But there were some flavor issues. First of all, when I first blended the whole mixture together, it was a little too watery for my taste. I like creamy. In retrospect, I should have just reduced it by keeping it over some heat. But I decided, instead, to put together a quick oil roux and just thicken it up. The result, at least when I first tasted it, was a distinct taste of raw flour. (The lesson: Never rush a roux) When I reheated the batch for general consumption, I let it simmer for a while, and I think that took care of the taste. But still. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the celery flavor. I love celeriac soup, but I think it got in the way of the cauliflower taste.

In the end, I’d probably add about 1 cup less chicken stock, 1 fewer celery stalk, and leave out the celery salt. But, as I said, it was met with rave reviews, so maybe I don’t know what the hell I am talking about. Or they were just saying they liked it so my feelings wouldn't get hurt.