Cream of Cauliflower Soup
As I write, I am looking out on the woods outside my apartment window, shrouded in clouds as thick as the creamy cauliflower soup I'm eating (a spoonful between each sentence, interspersed with bites of delicious toasted and buttered sourdough bread.) In about forty-five minutes I have to drag myself out of the comfort of my home to dabble with one of my other hobbies, fashion, at my boutique job. I enjoy my job, but days like this, I'd really rather stay home and bake and keep reading the book that has me glued to my seat-- The Story of the Jews (I'm addicted to history books.)
The other night, I tried my first soup recipe from The Joy of Cooking: the Cream of Cauliflower Soup recipe, found on page 95 in the 1997 edition. It's a very simple recipe without a lot of complicated ingredients, and it claims to serve as a "blueprint for a multitude of vegetable soups." I followed the recipe to the T, including the optional white wine and the generous 1/2 cup of heavy cream (well, heavy whipping cream because heavy cream is ridiculously hard to come by for some odd reason.) With all the ingredients included, it comes out to a whopping 9 smartpoints.
It's an enjoyable soup-- the warmth of it spreads right through one's body, perfect for a cold day when the heater is broken. The white wine gives it a bit of a lemony tang, which I like well enough, but for smartpoints' sake will probably reduce the amount of for future dinners. It reheats well, as long as you heat it very slowly on a low setting so as not to break the composition of the cream. It pairs well with some crusty bread and makes for an excellent little lunch, or a dinner snack on Sundays when you've had a huge, filling mid-afternoon meal.
As I said, I think I will either skip or reduce the amount of white wine next time, and I am also interested to try it without the cream, as the recipe notes that it works just as well without. I would be curious to play around with it and add a potato in next time, as I've discovered that potatoes can add a natural, lower-point creaminess to soups (thanks to the hordes of vegan recipes I've experimented with.) If I try this, I'll be sure to report to you with the results.
The other night, I tried my first soup recipe from The Joy of Cooking: the Cream of Cauliflower Soup recipe, found on page 95 in the 1997 edition. It's a very simple recipe without a lot of complicated ingredients, and it claims to serve as a "blueprint for a multitude of vegetable soups." I followed the recipe to the T, including the optional white wine and the generous 1/2 cup of heavy cream (well, heavy whipping cream because heavy cream is ridiculously hard to come by for some odd reason.) With all the ingredients included, it comes out to a whopping 9 smartpoints.
It's an enjoyable soup-- the warmth of it spreads right through one's body, perfect for a cold day when the heater is broken. The white wine gives it a bit of a lemony tang, which I like well enough, but for smartpoints' sake will probably reduce the amount of for future dinners. It reheats well, as long as you heat it very slowly on a low setting so as not to break the composition of the cream. It pairs well with some crusty bread and makes for an excellent little lunch, or a dinner snack on Sundays when you've had a huge, filling mid-afternoon meal.
As I said, I think I will either skip or reduce the amount of white wine next time, and I am also interested to try it without the cream, as the recipe notes that it works just as well without. I would be curious to play around with it and add a potato in next time, as I've discovered that potatoes can add a natural, lower-point creaminess to soups (thanks to the hordes of vegan recipes I've experimented with.) If I try this, I'll be sure to report to you with the results.
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