This past week I fought with a mild cold. You know the story: runny nose, everything above neck congested, headache… Luckily no body pain, but it did affect my life – I just rested in bed not to get any worse. And you know what was the best thing to eat at that time? Yes, soup of course!

 

 

This soup has two great ingredients against cold and flu: ginger and turmeric. Ginger helps you to sweat out toxins and it is very helpful when you are fighting with flu or cold. It also calms stomach and any effects of dizziness.

 

Turmeric belongs to the ginger family as well. It helps fighting with viruses and deactivates them. If you have fever, turmeric is a great remedy for fighting fever and inflammation in the body. Besides all these fighting properties, turmeric also boosts the immune system. So, this soup, with both turmeric and ginger, is a great help with fight against these viral diseases.

 

 

 

Since the beginning of February I have been serving office meeting lunch every Monday for service design company Hellon. The two dietary restrictions were vegetarian and gluten free. Since Monday is vegan day on the blog, I decided to make these lunch sessions vegan too. It’s a light but nutritious lunch, with soup, 2 kinds of salads, 2 kinds of spreads and some special bread. The very first soup I made for Hellon was another cauliflower soup I published in the blog long ago. I plan to serve this soup soon as well. It is a great challenge for me to have a regular, weekly customer – I try to serve something different every time!

 

Anyway, if you are fighting with flu or cold and thinking of what to eat, this is the soup for you. Hope you enjoy!

 

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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty:  ★☆☆ (Easy)
(serves 4-6)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

1 cauliflower (about 1100 gr with the roots), cut into florets
3 + 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 + 2 tsp ground turmeric, divided
1/2 tsp salt and more to taste in the end
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tsp Thai red curry paste (you can find this in S-market, K-market and probably in Alepa too)
1.5 lt (or 6 cups) water (or vegetable broth, if you have)
4 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp lime juice
1 can (400 ml.) coconut milk

 

For topping:
fresh mint leaves or leaves of another fresh herb you like

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

 

2. In a big bowl, mix cauliflower florets, 3 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Put the mixture on an oven tray with a baking paper and spread as one layer. Roast in the medium rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes, until cauliflower is tender and starting to brown. When ready, take out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes.

 

 

4. In a soup pan, put 2 tbsp olive oil and warm it for 1 minute on medium high heat. Add onion and saute for 3-4 minutes.

 

 

 

 

5. Add garlic and continue to saute for 2 more minutes.

 

 

 

6. Add carrots and Thai red curry paste and mix a little.

 

 

 

 

7. Add cauliflower, water (or broth) and 2 tsp turmeric and stir. Let the soup cook until boiling. After that, lower the heat to medium and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

8. When the soup simmers enough, turn off the heat. Add some salt to taste, fresh ginger and lime juice and stir a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Using a hand blender, blend until the soup is smooth.

 

 

10. Add coconut milk and turn on the heat in medium and cook, by stirring, for just a couple of minutes, until coconut milk is well mixed with the rest of the soup. Check seasoning one more time and adjust the taste with more salt if needed. Let the soup rest for at least 5-10 minutes and then serve with fresh herb topping. Enjoy!