Cauliflower soup

In the early 2000s, when I lived in Darwin, I would make a cauliflower soup on a Saturday night for my family.

My youngest daughter didn’t like it. So, as a reasonably stern father, I’d patiently sit with her at the dining table, waiting for her to finish her bowl of soup. I remember one night we sat at the table together until about nine o’clock.

To this day, my youngest daughter expresses a distaste for cauliflower soup.

I regularly comment that one day I want to make a cauliflower soup that she will like. Experiencing her enjoyment of my cauliflower soup is a dream I have.

Ingredients

• Cauliflower
• Bacon pieces
• White onion
• Iodised salt
• Vegetable stock
• Cream
• Rye sourdough bread
• Butter
• Extra virginal olive oil
• Chilean spice blend/Mapuche spice
• Red hot chilli flakes

Instructions

1. Break down a whole cauliflower with a paring knife to release the florets.
2. Place the florets onto a baking sheet and cook in a hot oven for about 20 minutes. Cook until there is a slight browning of the surface of the florets.
3. Dice the white onion.
4. In a saucepan, heat some EVOO with low-intensity heat.
5. Sautée the bacon and onions until the onions become translucent and fond forms on the bottom of the saucepan.
6. Deglase the fond with a bit of vegetable stock.
7. Add in the Mapuche spice and chilli flakes and stir around with the bacon and onions.
8. Add the cauliflower florets to the saucepan and the rest of the vegetable stock.
9. Bring the liquid to a slow boil.
10. Simmer until the cauliflower is soft enough to allow the tip of a paring knife to penetrate the stalk without any feeling of resistance.
11. Blend the soup with a stick blender.
12. Add some cream, and bring the soup back to a simmer.
13. Season the soup with salt to taste.
14. Toast some bread and add a layer of real butter.
15. Thank the Lord for the meal.
16. Enjoy the soup while reminiscing about my daughter’s resistance to cauliflower soup when she was a young child.

Final thoughts

My daughter tells me part of the reason she doesn’t like the soup is the colour. I used to make it without any spices apart from salt and white pepper along with the stock. She didn’t appreciate the pale colour.

This soup made with the Chilean spice blend/Mapuche spice plus the red hot chilli flakes gives the soup a reddish-brown hue.

The spiciness of the soup had the mucosa of my buccal cavity excited. The sensations were terrific. I rejoice in having a party in my mouth!

Thanks again to my work friends for the Mapuche spice.

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