Cauliflower cheese soup
- 11 minutes ago
- 5 min read
"It has something of the Welsh rarebit about it." Nigel Slater
Often I have a vague idea of what to do for dinner, and then I either go with what is to hand, or search around my cookbooks and the net to find the answer. Today I thought I should probably use the last bit of cauliflower that I have in my fridge before it goes off completely - small brown spots are already appearing. And when vegetables are getting to that stage, then soup is the answer. There is some leftover chicken stock in the fridge and some milk that needs using too. Moreover there are four of those delicious cheesy zucchini scones in the freezer. Now removed, so I am now committed to soup of some kind. Besides it's a very dull day.
So I thought I would start with Nigel and his Tender volume 2 book and lo and behold there is a recipe for A soup of cauliflower and cheese. Isn't it amazing how the inclusion of two almost non-words - 'A' and 'and' make it all sound so much more tempting than 'Cauliflower cheese soup' ? And on top of that, in the introduction were these warming words:
"I do believe in the power of soup to restore our spirits and to strengthen and protect us. Steaming, frugal, yet curiously luxurious soup replaces many a meal in this house. With a good loaf on the bread board and fresh salad in the bowl, I have no shame in serving soup to visitors (only amusement in watching them looking around in vain for a main course)."
I was won over. This was what I would make - even though I had no crème fraïche - but David was out so maybe he could get me some, and if he couldn't - well some cream and lemon juice would do the trick. (He has just come home with some - so I am now really committed.)
I also decided at that point to write a blog about Cauliflower cheese soup but alas there was no picture in his book of the soup - nor an 'official' one online. So I went looking for people who have made it. And actually there are several - at the top of the page - Cauliflower, mustard and cheddar soup - eat the right stuff and A soup of cauliflower and cheese - Kitchen Delights. Both of these writers seemed to be pleased with the result - one of them was entering it in some sort of local competition, so she must have thought it was good, but I went on searching and found two more which were a bit more disconcerting. The first was from a website called Cook Book Addict Creates who said:
What a disappointment! This recipe did not taste as good as it looked. It was bland and boring. Far too creamy. Neither of us liked it at all. I even attempted a rescue attempt by dissolving a Knorr Vegetable stock pot into it to no avail ... Will I make it again? Absolutely not"
which is certainly saying how it is - to them anyway. And a further search also came up with this, slightly more polite, but negative comment:
"I think I probably used too much water as the whole thing was a bit dilute and was better after some reducing. I think I might actually prefer it without the mustard too - we have a particularly vinegary wholegrain at the moment which was a little too much against the sweetness of the cauliflower." Dinner Diary
So I paused. Maybe this was not the best recipe for a cauliflower cheese soup. So I looked further. And here is what I found- of course there are more, but this is a selection: Curried cauliflower cheese soup - Jamie Oliver who also has Cauliflower cheese soup from his book Jamie's Great Britain. The recipe can be found on Clare's Kitchen and I have to say it looks pretty stodgy, and also involves Gentlemen's Relish - which is a kind of anchovy paste, and Stilton cheese (not my thing); Roasted cauliflower cheese soup (no cream) - Dished by Kate - just one in which the cauliflower was roasted first; Cauliflower cheese soup - Dominic Smith/delicious. - professionally beautiful, as is the BBC's Cauliflower cheese soup and Roast cauliflower cheese soup - Amira Gregory/taste
I think all of this leaves me with a number of options, having been made slightly uneasy by those negative opinions of Nigel's soup.
I think I might roast the cauliflower first, maybe with some kind of flavouring - curry powder, a spice mix of my own yet to be decided? - I also think I shall use up that leftover stock as the main liquid, maybe with some milk as well. If it hasn't gone off that is. Nigel cooks some onion and garlic first before adding the cauliflower, which he has boiled, but maybe I should try leek instead as I have some leek that needs using too. Bay leaves are the flavour he uses and they may well be a good thing. But should I add some other frozen vegetable - spinach, corn, peas? Even mushrooms. Maybe even tomato in some kind or other, which would take it in a different direction.
I do think it needs cheese, which he stirs in with the mustard and crème fraïche at the end. Since I now have some of that I obviously have to use it.
Honestly at this stage I don't really know. I am aware that I have a tendency to overdo additions, always adding that one more thing, which may in fact destroy the whole thing. Would spinach overpower the cauliflower after all? Peas or corn as well for that matter. And anyway what if it does? Does it matter? Do we desperately need to taste the cauliflower?
Bland seemed to be the biggest criticism, but as I have said many times before, bland can be good - it can be soothing, delicate, silky, homely - and that whole vocabulary. Or it can be tasteless and boring. One of those above - I think the one by Dished by Kate went as far as adding chilli oil. But why not - other than that David doesn't like chilli?
Decisions, decisions. But sort of fun. A bit from here, a bit from there. The worst result will probably be boring, same old, same old but I doubt it will be a disaster, and if I don't make too much, a disaster won't matter anyway. I just won't do it again.
Oh dear - when I was looking for related posts I found I had sort of covered this before - even the same recipe. Oh dear, oh dear. I had a quick look at them - oh dear indeed - quite a bit of repetition there.
YEARS GONE BY
June 16
2025 - The nostalgia of mundane meals - now there's a coincidence
2024 - Luxury
2023 - Bland - some thoughts and a recipe - another coincidence - am I that unimaginative? It was about cauliflower cheese pasta too!
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2017 - On holiday
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