Calorie Girl "IF YOU ARE LIKE ME"

I love Cauliflowers and have several different recipes for soup.

I think that the best is to give you the basic recipe and then list some options. It is so easy. Cauliflower is a very bland veggie so taste it plain, you can always add spices. One thing I have learned about making fresh vegetable soups is that you don't want to complicate the recipe so that you don't lose the pure taste of the vegetables.

I prefer to use Leeks, but onions will do just fine.

Choose your fat/oil depending on how low calorie you want to make the soup.
Also

Here goes:

BASIC Cauliflower soup.

3Leeks or onions
Olive or canola oil, marg, butter, or PAM
1 large Cauliflower
2 chicken flavored bouillon cubes (I use McCormicks Vegan cubes)
*Milk + rice flour to thicken if you desire
1 tsp sweetener optional.



Roughly chop up 3 large leeks or 3 medium onions
In a large soup pot use 3 measured tbsps of olive oil or whatever you want, butter, margarine, veggie oil, Pam will save 300 calories for the whole pot.
Toss in the chopped leeks and on a medium temp saute them till they get translucent and soft, not brown. Stir often
I add little dashes of water if it starts to brown,
When the leeks or onions are soft add 1 whole roughly chopped up cauliflower
Saute for just a couple of minutes then cover the veggies with water. Careful not to add too much water, just enough to cover them (completely) otherwise the soup won't be thick enough.

Ok here is what I use, 3 McCormicks Vegetarian Chicken Flavored Bouillon cube, it adds lots of taste with no distinctive flavor, but you can use any chicken flavored bouillon cube. If you like to use liquid chicken broth then use it but make sure it's just to cover the cauliflower and veggies.
Let it boil, then reduce heat to simmer. It cooks very quickly.
OK that is the basic..

This is EXTRA
You can add garlic, shredded white cabbage ( I love nappa Chinese cabbage) Parsnips, peeled zucchinis...anything white.
Then you can add more water to cover and 1 or more bouillon cubes.

You can add favorite herbs, a bay leaf, grate some fresh nutmeg or make it spicy with cayenne or chilies or even some curry. Some people love a teeny little cumin in it while it's cooking. Of course you can add more herbs or spices after its cooked. AGAIN: Remember that cauliflower is a very bland veggy so use all herbs or flavoring very sparingly so it won't over power the soup


Lets assume you are going for the most basic plain simple cauliflower soup which is delicious. When the cauliflower is soft, use a hand held blender to puree it till its completely smooth...OR...
you can also remove a few pieces of cauliflower before you puree it and add it after to have the occasional whole piece.
I often will add a tsp of sweetener or sometimes a dash of lemon juice and sometimes 1/2 cup of milk. If you want it even richer, not concerned with extra calories, use butter or a dash of cream to make it silky. If it is too watery, I use a tbsp of RICE flour mixed in cold milk to thicken it. Do the same even if you added any of the other white veggies.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Lots of people like it when I add the cumin, makes it sort of middle eastern tasting, but I do like the simplicity of it plain, reminds me of rich vichyssoise, you can top it with chopped chives or a dollop of sour cream. It never lasts long enough to get fancy around here.

*note if you don't want milk products, water is just fine, I make it like that for my lactose intolerant family members and it is just as rich.

Let me know how it turns out.