Cauliflower and Tarragon Soup Recipe

I've had a cauliflower sitting in my fridge for a while now, so as I am cooped up at home and not allowed to work today, I figured I might as well try and do something with it. I mentioned making a cauliflower soup to some people a couple of weeks ago and got scrunched up "ew" faces, so I felt it might be a challenge. However I did some searching on FoodTV.com (see link at side) and found a couple of basic recipes, so I didn't feel it was such a weird idea after all, and which of course, I adapted to the ingredients I had on hand

As with most of my recipes I post here, this is just a basic guide. Please feel free to "pantry cook" or improvise based on what you have at home.

You'll need:

1 head of cauliflower
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
3/4 cup or so of white wine, or white cooking wine
dried or fresh tarragon, to taste
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Boil a pan of water and drop in the florets of cauliflower. Add a little pinch of salt and boil for about 10 minutes or until the cauliflower is just tender. Don't overcook. Then drain the cauliflower while reserving the liquid!

Meanwhile, saute the chopped garlic and onions in a little olive oil. As they start to cook, add the cooking wine and continue to cook until the garlic and onions are tender. You don't have to cook all of the liquid out.

Pour the garlic and onions into the saucepan you used to boil the cauliflower. Then add the cauliflower and the reserved liquid (enough to cover the contents). Add some tarragon. Just sprinkle it on according to your own discretion. I found a couple of sprinkles was adequate (it will depend on the age of your dried spices, or if you are using fresh, as to how much you'll need). Add a little salt here, and you might even add a couple more splashes of wine. (Keep in mind that if you are using cooking wine, there is salt added to it, so you will need to use less salt accordingly. When making soups, it is best to taste less salt than more, so go easy.) Bring soup to the boil and then simmer uncovered at a medium/low temperature for about 10 minutes.

If you have an immersion blender (I highly recommend getting one if you want to make a lot of soups: you can pick one up for less than $30), then dip your blender in the saucepan and blend until soup is smooth with no lumps. If you are using a regular blender, then tip soup into it in batches and blend until smooth.

I simply went with what I had to make this soup, but I think only the garlic, cauliflower and onion were necessary, but you could subsitite leeks, shallots, or other unusual members of the onion family for yellow onions. You could choose to use vegetable stock or Vermouth instead of the wine, and a number of herbs and spices other than tarragon would work too. I would suggest parsley, sage, or thyme. I saw some recipes that incorporated parmesan cheese and potatoes. If you search the cooking links to the right of this blog, you'll no doubt find lots of inspiration.

I have made this early, but I have some ideas for dressing it up for a light dinner tonight:

I have some Greek yogurt that I may dollop on the top. I also have some herbed goat cheese that I may put in the middle of a shallow bowl and pour the soup around. I anticipate that I will attempt to make rye-bread croutons (baked, not fried) to accompany the soup. I am leaning towards a combination of goat cheese and almonds to add a little fat and creaminess to my soup. I'll post pictures later.

Remember from an earlier post what Ms. RD said about cauliflower. It has a TON of vitamin C, and a lot less calories than orange juice.

(P.S. - a picture has been added as promised)