Cauliflower And Apple Soup
I came to make this delicious Cauliflower And Apple soup when I had a glut of apples from people donating them from their apple trees! I looked around for recipe ideas to use them up. After doing several dessert recipes for apples, I started exploring some savoury apple recipes, such as Anne’s Sausage With Apples In Cider
I have a wonderful recipe for Apple and Parsnip Soup so the idea of Cauliflower and Apple certainly appealed.
Cauliflower Recipes
Cauliflowers don’t always get a good press and yet there are many ways to cook them. Cauliflower Cheese is obviously wonderful as a starting point but it is good to have some other ideas. One of my favourites is Cauliflower Pilau recipe.
What better then, to try Cauliflower and Apple soup? I had a hunch it would work and I was right, at least in my opinion. It also bears out my theory, that really soup can be made from anything, so long as you work with ingredients and flavours that you think work together.
Soup is an easy way to use up tired or leftover vegetables, or a plentiful harvest, resulting in a delicious, warming autumnal lunch, served with crusty bread
Making the Most Of Seasonal Vegetables
Soup is always a great way to use up any leftover vegetables, or indeed gluts of vegetables. It can be a way to save veggies that are beginning to wilt from the bin. You may find you can take advantage of any special offers on vegetables past their best at your local greengrocers. Use spices and flavourings to enhance your soup, and a sprinkle of cheese or a swirl of cream can add a luxurious extra!
Potato makes a good thickener and I would almost always use an onion and some garlic as a base. Stock, rather than plain water, is a good idea to provide basic seasoning and underlying flavour. But even that is simply a guide to be followed if you wish.
Soup makes a marvellous lunch, especially if served with a good chunk of bread – best if homemade!
Easy Cauliflower Soup
All you need to make thus cauliflower soup is a large saucepan. A liquidiser or food processor is also very useful, especially if you prefer smooth soups. A sieve will work too, but can be hard work and time consuming to push all the soup through (I tried it recently when on a self-catering holiday and made soup with no blender to hand!)
I am certainly unconvinced by soup making machines, not that I have ever used one. It seems that after you have done the initial chopping and frying – for which you will still need a large saucepan, you can transfer all the ingredients to the soup maker to do the bringing to the boil and simmering, rather than doing it in the pan. The soup maker will then liquidise to your required consistency. I do not think that warrants the £120 price tag since barring possibly saving a little stirring, there is little advantage. However if anyone out the has a soup maker and wouldn’t make soup without it, please do feel free to contradict me!
Cauliflower And Apple For Soup
I used a small whole cauliflower in this recipe. When you make soup you can use the whole cauliflower – leaves and stalk too. You get all the goodness from it as you will be consuming th liquid it is cooked in.
If you have a large cauliflower, you may wish to use half. I also used two large eating apples. Just one of the very large Bramley apples would probably be enough. Adjust the amount of curry powder you use according to taste an the type of curry powder you use. I used a ‘medium’ blend.
Cauliflower And Apple Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and sliced
- 1 small cauliflower, chopped
- 2 medium sized apples, peeled and sliced
- 750ml vegetable stock
- 1-2 teaspoons curry powder
Cooking Directions
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan
- Fry the onion until soft
- Add the garlic cloves
- Add the chopped cauliflower, leaves and stalk
- Add the apples
- Stir and cook for a few minutes
- Add the stock and curry powder
- Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to simmer
- Simmer gently for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Check that all the vegetables are soft before transferring to the liquidiser or seive
- Keep some of the mixture back if you prefer a chunkier soup
- Liquidise the soup in a blender and return to the pan to reheat
- Serve with your best (ideally home made!) crusty bread
Mary says
Interesting! I have had pear in soup and like the sweetness it adds, for example in butternut squash and pear soup. But never thought of apple!