Europe: Truffle Cauliflower Soup
The soup is quick and easy and has a delicate balance of flavors that are enhanced by the truffle oil added in. You can make this vegetarian by swapping the chicken broth for vegetable stock. You can also make this vegan, if you feel so inclined, by swapping out the butter and the milk for soy and olive oil.
Personally, I liked the blend of cream and soy milk (which I actually purchased by mistake and think this is the best place to use it up) which makes it a bit less heavy as well as a blend of olive oil and butter.
*for this recipe you’ll need a blender. I use the hand-held one and could not recommend it enough. Very much a worthwhile investment!
Ingredients
1 head of Cauliflower (hardly surprising, isn’t it)
1-2 Potatoes
1 White Onion
2 cloves of garlic
300ml Chicken stock
2 T Butter
2T Olive oil
Black and White pepper, salt
Truffle oil
100ml Heavy cream
Milk (soy or regular)
White wine (dry)
step 1
Clean and dice up your cauliflower and potatoes. You can group them together in one bowl as they will go into the pot together.
Separately, dice up your onion and garlic. These two can also be grouped together, as they are added to the pot at the same time.
Step 2
In your pot, put in your olive oil and melt the butter. Once this is hot but the butter is not turning color, add the onion and garlic.
Cook this until the onions are translucent but have not began to caramelize.
Add the white wine and cook for a few minutes to evaluate and cook through.
Step 3
Add in the cauliflower and the potatoes to the mix.
Add your chicken stock. Here you can fluctuate the amount of liquid you have, but it should be enough to cook through the vegetables. If you are out of stock at this point you’ll be fine just adding in some more water as well.
Cover the mixture and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes. You want the potatoes and the cauliflower very soft.
Step 4
Take your soup off of the heat and blend the contents.
It took me ages to get the hand-held blender (I have no idea why, don’t ask) but am thrilled that I did. It is useful for just about anything in your kitchen, particularly for these sort of soups.
Once you blended everything to a consistent mixture, you should add your cream and milk.
The amounts of this varies and is solely dependent on your taste preferences. I used a mixture of cream and soy milk in a ratio of about 30/70. I did this because the soup is already quite thick and I wanted to make it less like a mash and more soupy without making it overly heavy (which the cream would have inevitably done).
(As I mentioned before, I also accidentally bought soy milk so was excited I had figured out a use for it.)
Step 5
Once you have reached the desired consistency for your soup, season it with:
Fresh black pepper
White pepper
Salt
Truffle oil
All to taste, of course.
Bon appetit
Serve and enjoy hot. For garnish you can use basil and additional truffle oil.
Alternatively, you can also garnish with crispy chorizo crumbles or serve alongside a slide of toasted garlic bread.