Recipe courtesy of Psychologies Magazine (April 2014) and taken from The Ginger & White Cookbook by Tonia George, Emma Scott & Nicholas Scott
When cooked for a long time, cauliflower has a beautiful velvety texture with a nutty and slightly spicy flavour. It goes excellently with blue cheese, but needs some sharpness to stop the whole thing getting too cloying, so add some lemon and a dollop of chutney as a garnish.
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, cubed
1 onion, diced
Sprig of fresh thyme
50g butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 medium cauliflower (about 600g), trimmed and broken into 3-4 cm florets
1 litre vegetable stock
200ml double cream
Juice of 1/2 lemon
250g Dorset blue or Stilton cheese
4 tblsp chutney (pear or apply chutney)
Freshly ground black pepper
Slices of toasted granary bread, to serve
Step One : Place the potatoes and onion in a large saucepan. Add the thyme and butter, cover and cook over a low heat until the potato is tender and the onion, translucent. Add the garlic and cauliflower, stirring to coat in the butter, and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the stock, then cover and simmer very gently for 30 minutes – or until the cauliflower is tender.
Step Two : Remove from the heat, blend the soup to a smooth puree, then return it to the saucepan and loosen with a little water if necessary. Add the cream and heat through. Season well and add lemon juice to taste.
Step Three : Set out your soup bowls. Crumble a little bit of blue cheese or Stilton into each one, then spoon on the chutney and pour the soup around it. Add a twist of black pepper on top and serve with slices of toasted granary bread.
