Every now and then I accidentally make up a recipe that turns out better than expected - last night was one of those times, and I wanted to share it with you.



The picture above I got from an online soup recipe page because it closely resembles my soup - and I forgot to get a photograph of mine. It comes from this page (which is not my recipe but kind of close:

Mr. Food's Carrot & Cauliflower Soup Recipe

This soup could already be in your recipe files as it's nothing earth-shattering or new really. I have called my version of this recipe:

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SOUP

Ingredients for roasting: (cut veggies into same-size chunks) - Serves 4.

- 1 whole cauliflower cut into large chunks
- 2 small onions or 1 large onion, cut into large pieces
- 2 or 3 carrots, sliced lengthwise and cut in half
- 1/2 butternut squash, peeled, cut into large chunks
- Olive oil
- Salt & Pepper
- Vegetable oil spray (Pam)

Other Ingredients:

- 1-2 cups of water
- 1 can Cream of Shrimp Soup (this is flexible, cream of anything would go well here: chicken, mushroom, cheddar cheese - whatever you have on hand)

- 6-8 pieces of crispy cooked bacon (if desired)

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Spray a large cookie sheet with Pam and put all veggies listed above onto the sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Roast in a pre-heated 375 F degree oven until the veggies are fork-tender, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven when done.

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In a soup pot, add:

4 cups broth (I used chicken broth, in the box)
1-2 cups water (I used only 1)

Heat the liquid until it is bubbly. Turn off. Add all the roasted vegetables to the pot. With a hand-held immersion blender, blend everything into a puree in the pot.

(If you don't have an immersion blender, you could either:

1) ask for one for Christmas because they are fabulous and not too expensive (here is a cheaper version for only $34.95 with Prime). or

2) put the veggies into a regular blender and whizz them into a puree, or into a food processor and do the same. I would recommend doing the latter two methods with just the veggies, not the broth, and then just add the pureed veggies to the broth).

Put heat on under pot and bring back to bubbling.

Add one can of CREAM OF SHRIMP soup (concentrated) and stir, on low heat, until all is combined, about 2 minutes.

(Note: I had originally planned to use one can of CHEDDAR CHEESE soup, but I was all out of that and I had several cans of the Cream of Shrimp - so I tried it - boy was it ever the right decision! It came out fabulous!)

Cook up some bacon in the oven if you like. I did that with several pieces and when it was crispy, I cut it up and added it to our individual bowls. I wouldn't add it to the soup pot because it would get soft and mushy in there. Just sprinkle on top of the soup.

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This was the perfect soup! I had meant to add some potatoes to the mix of veggies, but as I only had 4 potatoes left for the rest of the week, I omitted them. It didn't matter! The soup was perfection! Paul agreed, as well.

If you don't have a butternut squash, you could use more carrots, like a small bag of carrots.

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So that's my offering for a wonderful fall dinner. This one was a keeper, we both loved it and I will definitely do this more often. Roasting the veggies, rather than sauteing them in the pot, was nice. I think they held their flavor more this way.

Have you got some favorite cold weather soup recipes you could share? I love to collect them - I can see soup being a major staple in our dinners this winter - it seems like it's going to be a long cold one!

Cheers,

Bex-from-the-soup-kitchen




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Check out my other blog, "From the Hawthorne Tree"


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Pages from the American Notebooks, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Passages from Hawthorne's English Notebooks



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