I love creamy soups anytime, anywhere and my husband adores any kind of soup so I make it often on weekends. Today I was looking through the vegetable bin in the fridge to see what I needed to use up first and discovered a head of cauliflower, 3 Chinese eggplants, 3 leeks and a few other things I won’t mention that went straight to the trash. I needed to use all these things fairly soon so I quickly decided to make roasted cauliflower because that is so delicious all by itself and when added to other dishes it just kicks everything up a notch or 2. I sautéed one leek to combine with crumbled pork sausage and eggs for a frittata and I put the eggplant back in the bin to make a decision on that later.
After some internal debate and further search in the fridge, I decided to cut the head of cauliflower in half and roast 1/2 and steam the other 1/2 for soup. I removed the other items I had turned up in my search and set them on the counter – half a loaded baked potato from our dinner out the night before, half a shallot and 1/2 a celery stalk. Perfect!
This soup turned out absolutely delicious and I’m certain the leftover baked potato had a lot to do with it, but it may also be the last minute addition of the shredded gruyère cheese that made it so good.
Give it a try and don’t worry if you don’t have a leftover loaded baked potato. Any type of leftover potato will be delicious – use some mashed or roasted potatoes or cut a fresh one into 6 pieces put in a microwave safe bowl cover with water and microwave on high for 1 minute. It will be ready to add to the soup. No gruyère ? Make it cheddar instead. I used just half the head of cauliflower but no doubt this will double very nicely
Creamy Cauliflower Soup
- January 29, 2019
- 4
- 45 min
- Print this
Ingredients
- 1/2 head cauliflower
- 1/2 baked potato with skin, smashed or smooshed or cut up
- 1/2 celery stalk thinly sliced
- 1/2 shallot chopped fine
- 1T butter
- 3 T flour
- 2 c chicken broth
- 1 c milk
- 1/2 c shredded gruyere cheese or any cheese you like better
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Step 1
- Cut cauliflower into small pieces including some of the stalk and put in a small saucepan with 1/2 chicken broth or water. When cauliflower is soft and easily pierced by a fork turn off the heat and set aside and be sure to reserve the cooking liquid
- Step 2
- Heat butter in medium saucepan add celery and onion to pan and cook until tender about 3 minutes
- Step 3
- Add flour to celery and onion and mix together well then add reserve liquid and the rest of the chicken broth and set heat to simmer. Add the baked potato pieces and the cooked cauliflower to the pot and allow the soup to thicken for 5- 10 minutes. Stir occasionally
- Step 4
- When thickened slightly and the vegetables are soft turn off the heat and allow soup to cool so that you are able to pour into the blender or food processor safely. Once the soup is in the blender or food processor blend until smooth (this may have to be done in 2 batches)then return to your pot.
- Step 5
- Reheat the blended soup and add the milk to the broth and stir to thicken. Be sure to bring soup temperature up slowly so that the milk does not burn
- Step 6
- Add the cheese, allow it to melt into the soup and it is ready to serve
This is heavenly soup! The gruyere takes it to the most lovely, rich place without overwhelming it. Can’t wait to have this again <3.
I could not agree more!
Thanks