CategoryVegetable

Cook’s Notes – Cauliflower Leek Soup

Christine has launched the first edition of Cooking with Mike (link opens in a new window), our mostly-weekly cooking series. The soup is one we’ve eaten for a long time, and regularly makes an appearance for a quick weeknight dinner.

I won’t rehash the making of the soup itself – she’s got the key information up on her site – but I did have some extra comments worth writing here.

First, like many soups, this isn’t fussy about exact ingredient proportions. That happened to be the bunch of leeks and the size of cauliflower head I bought for the shoot. Play with it, and adjust to your taste – more leek, less leek, some shallots instead, and so on.

The flavor of this soup is pretty clean – the smokiness of the bacon, the body of the stock, the vegetable notes of the cauliflower and soft pungency of the leeks. (Editor’s note – Please don’t let me write a sentence with all those adjectives in it at once. It sounds too pretentious.) This also means it’s a great base to add all sorts of flavors – peppers, spices, herbs, booze. For example, curried cauliflower soup with pistachios.

Finally, there are many ways to finish the soup, which Christine touched on in her post:

  • The chunkiest finish is to simply serve it as it is – pieces of cauliflower and leek in a broth. If that is your intent (and add some carrot pieces, that sounds great) then pay a bit more attention when cutting the leeks and cauliflower to get them to similar, even sizes. Since this was getting blended, I didn’t fuss too much.
  • Next is to mash this with a potato masher or the like. This won’t ever get truly smooth, but it’ll get kind of smooth, but still very rustic.
  • Stick blender is next on the list. This can get you a pretty smooth soup, although you’ll still feel it – it’s not completely smooth, but there aren’t chunks to chew on.
  • If you want to get it nice and smooth, a combination is best – blend it with a stick blender then pass it through a fine mesh strainer. I have a couple of inexpensive ones from Target or the like around the house, and while they aren’t the finest mesh, they do the job well. Take a ladle and push the soup through the strainer – this evens out the soup and makes it finer than just blending alone.
  • Finally is a standing blender. The Vitamix shown was a Christmas present for me (yay!), and it definitely has some torque to it. This created an amazingly smooth, thick, velvet-like soup. I thought it was delicious. Christine decided it was odd. Your mileage may vary.

So, make the soup. Write in and tell us about what you’ve done and what you think. And, there’ll be more to come!

Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe – Cooking with Mike…

Easy Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe

Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe Prep

This Cauliflower Leek Soup recipe has the distinct honor of being the first post of the new cooking series on my blog!

My husband Mike & I have long talked about doing a “Cooking With Mike” series. He cooks, I take photos, and we share it all with you. I turned it in to a resolution for the new year – every weekend (well, every weekend that we are both in Houston), we spend time together in the kitchen cooking and photographing recipes. We’re still working the kinks out of the system, so while we cooked this the first weekend of the year, I am just now posting it here on the blog. Don’t worry though, I will be catching up soon!

On to cooking – the Cauliflower Leek Soup recipe – just click here! When I started doing 4 Hour Body 13 months ago, I gave up potatoes. The down side to that was no more potato leek soup. Mike decided to try to make it with cauliflower instead, and I discovered it tastes just as delicious, all while being Paleo / 4 Hour Body friendly!

Cauliflower and leeks for making soup

I should probably admit that until I met Mike, I didn’t even know what a leek was, other than being some weird thing I saw on the menu from time to time. Ah, the life of being a picky eater. He has definitely made me more adventuresome when it comes to food!

Who Doesn't Love BACON?

And who doesn’t love Bacon? Oh, wait, I didn’t until a year ago. Well, I used to, but then I stopped. I still can only eat it if it is really crispy!

Cutting leeks to prepare them to be washed.

Cutting leeks to prepare them to be washed.

When preparing your leeks, you want to cut them in half in one direction, but not all the way through at the base. Then turn and repeat for the other half (essentially cutting them in to quarters), again, not cutting all the way through the base – as Mike shows in the bottom photo. This will keep them together while you soak them to get them clean, making it easier to cut them for the soup.

Leeks - Ready for the Cauliflower Leek Soup

Chopping for the Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe

Leeks - Ready to go in the Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe!

Removing the core of the cauliflower

Breaking Down Cauliflower for cooking cauliflower leek soup

Cutting the cauliflower for our cauliflower leek soup

Cauliflower, ready for Cauliflower Leek Soup

While he was breaking down the cauliflower and cutting it, the leeks were sweating in the pot behind him, getting nice and soft and all of the water out of them so that we could add the cauliflower and the (still frozen) chicken stock, in case you are a vegan you can find an alternative for the chicken stock at https://thevegancompany.co.uk/.

The leeks are done when they have sweated out, are very soft, are not browned, and are about half their original volume.

Sweating the leeks - cauliflower leek soup

Cauliflower Leek Soup - cooking

Testing the cauliflower to make sure it is done cooking

Cauliflower Leek Soup in the Vitamix

Cauliflower Leek Soup in the Vitamix

We used our new Vitamix Professional Series 200 Blender [affiliate link] to blend our soup, but we discussed afterwards that it makes it so smooth and creamy, it is too smooth for me. (I have texture issues.) Mike’s tips to work around that if you like your soup a little more “hearty” like I do is to either hold back 25% of the soup and blend that in separately at the end, not quite so smooth, or to use a stick blender. He was THRILLED with how smooth the soup came out putting it all in at once, and said that that was the classic texture. Just so you know you have options!

Update January, 2014: We are so excited to be included in the Meal Planning Magic 25 Simple Soup Recipes for National Soup Month list! Many great ones there to check out as well!

Easy Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe - topped with bacon

Easy Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe

Cauliflower Leek Soup Recipe

Yield: 4-6 Servings

Ingredients

  • 4 strips of bacon, cut into ½” pieces
  • 3 leeks, trimmed and washed
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 4 C chicken stock
  • ½ C heavy cream
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. In a pot over medium-low heat, cook the bacon pieces until golden brown and fat has rendered. Remove bacon pieces with slotted spoon and reserve.
  2. Halve the leeks and chop roughly into pieces about ½” wide.
  3. Turn heat to medium-high. Add leeks to pot, scatter over 1 tsp. kosher salt, stir, and cover pot. Let leeks sweat for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir to scrape up brown bacon bits from bottom of pot.
  4. Core the cauliflower and separate the florets.
  5. Once leeks are done, add cauliflower and stock to pot and bring it to a boil.
  6. Turn heat to medium-low. Cover pot and cook until cauliflower is tender, about 15 minutes.
  7. Transfer soup to blender (work in batches if necessary) and blend until smooth. (May use a stick blender if you prefer.) For additional notes on this step, see the Cook's Notes.
  8. Stir or blend in cream, then taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
https://spoonandknife.com/cauliflower-leek-soup-recipe-cooking-with-mike/

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