Oh no… You can never put too much garlic on anything.. And oh yes… You can only beat the cold and dark winter of Helsinki with a warm and light coloured soup.

 

I am amazed at myself sometimes. I did not eat the wonderful cauliflower at all when I was a kid, I only started eating it when I was living in Paris as an exchange student. The reason for that was simple: cauliflower, along with broccoli, was the cheapest thing to buy from the market!! And so thanks to being a financially struggling student in the middle of Paris, I got to eat and love loads of cauliflower.

 

 

 

And what could be a better choice for a soup when you look at outside on a November day, it’s about 2 pm but it looks like evening already? You know that if you make soup out of cauliflower, it will bring a nice light into the kitchen, and it certainly does!

 

The best smell of this soup comes out already while you are roasting the cauliflowers together with onions, garlic and olive oil, my dearest ingredients. Take the time, and roast them well. Roasting adds an incredibly rich taste to this soup. And do save a few cauliflowers for the serving.

 

 

 

I added also 1 carrot, chopped in small cubes and steamed. I added it at the last minute and left the pieces as chunks, did not puree it with the rest of the soup. This is completely optional. You can leave it out, or you can another vegetable if you like.

 

Smell it, smell it, here comes the garlic, onion and cauliflower!

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(Serves 4)

 

1/2 cauliflower
3 garlic cloves, smashed (you can put even more garlic if you like)
1 onion, chopped into small pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup cream
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped chives (optional)
1 carrot, chopped into cubes and steamed (optional)

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 230C.

 

2. Chop the cauliflower into small florets and put them in a big bowl. Add garlic, onion, salt and olive oil and stir well.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Spread the cauliflower mixture on an oven tray with baking sheet and put it in the oven. Roast for 25 minutes, until the cauliflower florets start to brown. When they are ready, take them out of the oven and save a few of the florets for serving on top of the soup.

 

4. In a big pan, put the water and roasted cauliflower mixture. Simmer the soup over medium low heat for about 20 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender enough.

 

 

 

5. When the cauliflower is ready, take it out of the heat. Take a blender and puree the mixture.

 

 

 

6. Put the soup back on low heat, add cream. Stir the soup with low heat until the cream is incorporated.

 

 

7. If you steamed or boiled a vegetable, like I did with the carrot, add the chunks of vegetable at the end and stir it gently for a minute.

 

 

8. Serve the soup warm, add a few cauliflower florets you saved to garnish, along with some freshly ground black pepper and chopped chives. You can also use croutons if you like. YUMM!!