Golden Cauliflower Soup Satisfies on a Rainy Day

Soups / May 16, 2014

I’ve always loved vegetables from the cabbage family and for sure one of my favorites is cauliflower. It’s so pretty for one, and so versatile all while being so hearty. My mom makes a creamy cauliflower soup with a mirepoix, and a roux with cream cheese. It is DIVINE but each bite is 10 more minutes on the treadmill.

It was raining outside last night, hard. It was that kind of mid spring rainstorm that gets the last of any leaves to open, makes the grass pop up like a Private saluting a General, and makes you say, for one small minute, that you’re glad its cool. Time to get out the ol’ soup pan.

I had fun chopping the cauliflower; a task I don’t usually look forward to. But I was intrigued by the warmth and tone of the food, and how it brought brightness to an otherwise grayish day.

I made this with some sausage, but you could add lamb, or even chicken thighs. You could also make it vegetarian. I wouldn’t add beef, because there’s a nuttiness to all the ingredients preserved by poultry or a more gamey meat, that I believe would be lost with the addition of beef.

Anyway, enjoy, explore, and make this your own.

Golden Cauliflower and Mushroom Soup

With sausage, brown rice, and zucchini

Cook/prep time 1 hour

Ingredients:

• ¾ lb quality, ground sausage
• 4 ½ C golden cauliflower, broken into flowerettes
• 1 small zucchini large dice
• ¾ C white onion large dice
• 4 C fat free chicken or veg stock
• 2 C baby bella mushrooms sliced thick
• 2 C water
• 1 C brown rice or brown rice medley
• 3 T olive oil
• 2 T butter
• 1 t dried oregano
• 1 t dried tarragon
• ¼ t dried fennel seeds
• 1 C shaved Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

Direction:

In a saucepan, melt butter and 1 T oil. Heat. Add rice and sauté it until it toasts and begins to brown, about 4 – 5 minutes. Set aside. In a large Dutch oven, brown the sausage, (note, you can do this vegetarian but you will have to substitute some of the flavor. I suggest a bit of apple cider vinegar, more herbs, perhaps rosemary) and then add the onion and cook until translucent. You may have to add a T of the olive oil depending upon how lean your sausage is. Then add the cauliflower, the herbs, salt and pepper. Let cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the stock, toasted rice from pan, water, salt and pepper. Let simmer for about 45 minutes or until rice is cooked. Add the chopped zucchini and let simmer for only a few minutes until it is cooked. Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve with lots of fresh, grated parmesan cheese on the top!