Cauliflower Soup
Out of all the soups in my repertoire, the one that most says comfort food to me is my moms time-tested Cauliflower Soup. It's brothy. Savory. Creamy. Filled with tender chunks of cauliflower and all the comforts of home. I've made it in my own household for years and now I share it with you.
Out of all the soups in my repertoire, the one that most says comfort food to me is my moms time-tested Cauliflower Soup. It's brothy. Savory. Creamy. Filled with tender chunks of cauliflower and all the comforts of home. I've made it in my own household for years and now I share it with you.
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 stick butter divided
- 1/2 whole onion finely diced
- 1 whole carrot finely diced
- 1 stalk celery finely diced
- 1 whole (to 2 whole) cauliflower heads (roughly chopped)
- 2 tablespoons fresh or dried parsley chopped
- 2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth or stock
- 2 teaspoons to 4 teaspoons salt to taste
- 1 cup (heaping) sour cream room temperature
- Carbohydrate 112.194505077473 g
- Cholesterol 1118.78000052985 mg
- Fat 380.683827665 g
- Fiber 2.15642502931611 g
- Protein 59.1652575448339 g
- Saturated Fat 238.584869602556 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (2075g)
- Sodium 2652.26850085106 mg
- Sugar 110.038080048157 g
- Trans Fat 23.3001840086074 g
- Calories 4034 calories
Step-by-step
- In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, or until it starts to turn brown.
- Add the carrots and celery and cook an additional couple of minutes. Add cauliflower and parsley and stir to combine.
- Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, pour in chicken stock or broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer. In a medium saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Mix the flour with the milk and whisk to combine. Add flour-milk mixture slowly to the butter, whisking constantly.
- Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup half-and-half. Add mixture to the simmering soup. Allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Check seasoning and add more salt or pepper if necessary.
- Just before serving, place the sour cream in a serving bowl or soup tureen. Add two to three ladles of hot soup into the tureen and stir to combine with the sour cream. Pour in remaining soup and stir. Serve immediately.
While puréed potato soups rely entirely on starch to achieve thickness, this cauliflower variation depends on a carefully constructed butter-and-flour roux combined with whole milk. Sweating the finely diced onions, carrots, and celery over very low heat for fifteen minutes softens their cellular walls without browning the sugars aggressively. Covered steaming allows the rough-chopped cauliflower heads to release moisture evenly before the chicken broth goes into the Dutch oven.
Creating the thickening base requires whisking all-purpose flour directly into melted butter and warm milk before introducing the half-and-half off the heat. Simmering this mixture for twenty minutes eliminates raw flour notes entirely. Low-sodium chicken stock prevents the reduction from becoming overly salty as the liquid concentrates.
Tempering the room-temperature sour cream prevents curdling upon contact with boiling broth. Ladling two hot scoops directly into the sour cream bowl equalizes thermal shock before returning everything to the main pot. Dairy fats and vegetable compounds merge during this final stage to create a rich mouthfeel without masking the vegetable's natural sulfurous edge.
Using a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven distributes heat uniformly across the base, preventing scorching during the initial flour-and-butter cooking phase. Maintaining a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil protects the emulsion once the dairy enters the pot.
