This time of year, with the weather getting colder, I love to serve soup for supper. It’s an easy sell at my house, where The Husband is a soup-aholic. But with a soup this good, I firmly believe you can sell anyone on it. The trick is to amp up the flavor, vary the texture, and make it substantial.
Here I started by roasting — not boiling — the cauliflower. Roasting eliminates excess water, brings the natural sugars to the fore, and concentrates the flavors (adding some nuttiness in the process). Next, I make sure not to obscure the cauliflower’s flavor with too many other ingredients. Yes, there is onion and garlic, but they play only supporting roles. Likewise, the stock, diluted with water, is designed not to overwhelm. The greens — because they’re not pureed, and not added until the very end — pack a satisfying little punch of their own without compromising the cauliflower taste.
You may notice that there’s no dairy in this recipe. While it’s true that dairy adds luxuriousness to a soup’s texture, it also tends to blot out flavor, particularly delicate vegetable flavors. That’s why I almost always leave it out.
Similarly, there’s no flour or cornstarch here. This soup owes its rich thickness to the pureeing of some of the cauliflower, onion and garlic in the company of a lone Yukon Gold potato (for silkiness). I’d always rather thicken a soup by pureeing some of its ingredients than by adding flour or another starch. Starchy thickeners are distracting.