Without meaning to, I've gotten into the habit of posting a new recipe to the Honest Project each Monday and I'm liking this new routine. I think it makes it easy for anyone who cooks along with my recipes to add a new recipe to their apron pocket each week, without it becoming overwhelming. Today's soup recipe was ready to go a few weeks back, but I forgot about until this morning when I was standing in the kitchen with a head of cauliflower in my hand, wondering what to do with it for lunch. So Roast Cauliflower and Cannellini Bean Soup it was.
There are lots of things I'm thankful for when it comes to food, and I'm definitely thankful for cauliflower. It tastes good and is versatile to cook with. My golden rule when it comes to preparing cauliflower is to avoid boiling or over-steaming it. Soggy cauliflower is just not where it's at! When I first started cooking most of my meals from scratch and trying to eat more vegetables, I made ALOT of soup. It's pretty much the easiest way to do both in my opinion. And as the weather gets colder soup becomes much more appetising. In fact it would be remiss of any food blogger not to post a new soup recipe at this time of year what with comfort food being on trend, hygge and all those other stuff considered.
I added cannellini beans to this recipe, because you know how I like to turn vegetable dishes into meals in themselves. Basically add some protein and away you go. I also added parmesan, because I was going for a hint of cheesey cauliflower vibes and chilli to spice things up. Roasting the cauliflower makes it sweet and adds heaps more flavour than if you just add it raw to the stock and let it cook, so don't be tempted to skip this part.
I spoke before about finding inspiration for each of my dishes and I'm not too sure where the inspiration for this one came from. I could say the start of Autumn, the first frost of the season or the urge to cook warming food. But to be honest, I'm still in salad mode 50% of the time. Thinking back to when I first made this a few weeks back, I'm pretty sure I was trying to use up what was left in the press / vegetable basket, so it's more likely the inspiration for this recipe was thrifty cooking. Keep scrolling for the recipe for my Roast Cauliflower & Cannelini Bean Soup.
Roast Cauliflower & Cannellini Bean Soup
(serves 4)
Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 small knobs of butter
I tbsp olive oil
1.5 litres vegetable stock
Small bunch fresh basil
2 tbsp chilli oil
2 tbsp shaved parmesan
Black pepper
Sea salt
Method
Preheat the oven to Gas 5/190 C. Place the cauliflower florets on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tbsp melted butter and season with a pinch of sea salt. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Heat a tbsp olive oil and a knob of butter over a low to medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion and celery and cook for five minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Next add the roasted cauliflower florets, the stock and the cannellini beans. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 1 tbsp of parmesan shavings. Blend using an immersion blender (that's one of those handheld ones :)). Taste, season with sea salt and black pepper and blend again.
Pour into soup bowls and top with a drizzle of chilli oil, freshly chopped basil and a shaving of parmesan.
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