Curried Cauliflower Soup

A warm curried cauliflower soup is the perfect thing for cold gray days. I first tried a curried cauliflower soup at a restaurant called Greens.  It's a wonderful vegan-friendly place where all the dishes are elegant and served with panache.  I whipped up an easy Vitamix soup in recollection of that tasty meal.

Start by roasting the florets of a cauliflower and a medium starch potato.  I like to drizzle with a bit of olive oil and place in the cold oven.  Then, allow the oven to preheat to 400˚F and continue baking until the potatoes are cooked through.  This method causes nice browning on the cauliflower and potatoes.  While thongs are roasting, dice and sautee a red onion in olive oil.

Allow the ingredients - onions, cauliflower and potatoes - to cool slightly before adding them to the Vitamix.  Add in a hand full of cashews and enough water to cover all the mix.  Blend on medium to allow the ingredients to break down.  Then, add salt, curry powder and adjust the water to your desired thickness. (Clearly, this is a very flexible recipe, so make it your own!)

Serve garnished with chopped roasted cashews and tarragon.

Irish Stew

I have been sick... for a while.  This is a soup my grandma used to make for me.  We always called it Irish stew, but it's really a very simple, five ingredient, soup.  I haven't had this dish in years. Start out with about 4-6 medium potatoes and a medium yellow onion.  Peel and chop the potatoes.  They don't need to be perfectly cubed or diced.  Grandma kept them coarsely chopped - kinda rectangular pieces.  Dice the onion fairly finely - no big chunks.

Add them all to a large pan and add water and salt.  The water should cover the ingredients with at least an inch of water.  Start with a modest amount of salt to keep things evenly seasoned.  Boil until the potatoes are fully cooked and tender.

Before serving, be sure to adjust the salt to your preference.  Grandma used to add evaporated milk when serving the soup.  But, that would turn my insides into outsides, so, I use almond milk.

She would serve it with her homemade bread.  This is the type of food I grew up eating; simple, ungarnished, unadorned, comforting food.

Creamy Watercress Soup

This is a quick and easy dish with a St. Patrick's Day hue. Creamy watercress soup!

First, hack up the white bit of 2-3 leeks and one large potato.  It's also fine to use the green part of the leek, but it will result in a slightly darker colour.  Sautee them with a bit of olive oil until the potatoes are tender.  You don't want them to begin to brown since that will result in a darker soup.

Then, add to a blander jar: a couple hand-fulls (about a cup of leaves) of watercress, the cooked leek and potato and a hand-full of macadamia nuts.  I just used regular roasted macadamias.

Blend on medium speed and add water until the mixture is thin enough to puree.  Next, ultra puree the mixture!  It needs to be completely smooth (I used a Vitamix, for the perfect consistency).  When it's very smooth, taste and season it with salt, and if you like, a little squeeze of lemon.

Garnish with a few watercress leaves and a drizzle of macadamia nut oil.

Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup

I love mushroom soup, but not the sloppy congealed type that's extruded from a can.  I like a rich, flavourful and meaty soup with chunks of mushroom.

First, make a broth.  The broth is the canvas on which the soup is painted.  I made a very simple base using: celery, carrots and a seasoning blend [bay, paprika, garlic powder, dehydrated onion and nutritional yeast.

Don't salt the broth because that reduces flexibility of the finished product.  It's best to salt the soup at the end.  Otherwise, it can reduce and become too salty.

In a separate pan, boil a medium chopped potato.  While that's cooking away, rehydrate a selection of your favourite mushrooms.  Now, I always like to use fresh, but finding these unique funghi can be a challenge.  So, I've chosen dehydrated: black trumpet, oyster and porcini.

Simply pour boiling water over them and allow them to reconstitute ~20 minutes, or until tender.  At this stage, the broth should also be ready.

Remove the mushrooms from the water and set aside.  Add the water from the mushrooms to a high speed blender.  *Often there's grit that sinks to the bottom when rehydrating mushrooms.  Be cautions to prevent adding the grit to the mix.*  Then, add into the blender the broth, cooked (drained) potato and most of the mushrooms.  I like to select a few mushrooms for garnish and set them aside.  This provides both texture and aesthetic enhancement.

Pulverize the mix in the blender until velvety and creamy.  Season with salt, to taste, and blend until thoroughly mixed!  Garnish with the reserved mushrooms and serve piping hot.

Roast Cauliflower Onion Soup

Keep warm on these chilly days with this roast cauliflower and onion soup.  I made onion rings as a crispy accent to the soup.  It's all vegan and gluten free!

First, cut apart a head of cauliflower and drizzle with olive oil.  Season with a bit of sea salt and place in a 400˚F oven until slightly browned and tender.

While the cauliflower is roasting, peel, chop and boil a potato.  When the potato is tender, drain the water and add to a blender.  Then, chop a large onion and saute in a bit of olive oil.  To prevent bitterness, don't let the onions brown.  Remove them from the heat when they're just translucent.

Add the cauliflower and onions to the blender and blitz on low.  Slowly add water until the ingredients are suspended and able to blend.  Then, ultra-puree the mixture until smooth.  Season with salt and serve hot, garnished with black sesame seeds and parsley.

I wanted something crunchy to go with the soup.  I used rings of sweet onions and battered them with blended flax meal and xanthan gum.  Then, I covered them with a breading of cornmeal and cornflour (starch), seasoned with a bit of onion powder and sea salt.

Vichyssoise

It's that time of year where the evenings can be cold or hot. So, why not have a soup that can be served cold or hot?! Vichyssoise is the perfect dish!This soup is kinda French and kinda American. There's a bit of undecidedness regarding the origin, so let's just call it French-American fusion. Regardless of the source, it's a delicious and smooth preparation made of leeks and potatoes.

Start by coarsely hacking up the white bit of leeks, and an equal portion of peeled potatoes. Add the leek, potato, along with a bit of olive oil and salt, to a large pot and gently sautée. Don't allow colour to develop on the veg - the soup should be a glistening creamy white.

Add enough water to cover the veg and just a bit more.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Continue cooling until the potatoes are soft.  Then, transfer the mix to a blender and puree.  I like to use the Vitamix because it makes an ultra smooth soup.

For a hot dish, serve it up right away.  I garnished it with crushed pistachios and olive oil.  For the more traditional soup, refrigerate before serving.  The chilled one I garnished with celery leaves and green onion.

Creme d'asperges [Cream of Asparagus Soup]

This amazingly creamy, yet vegan, soup is the perfect thing for a cold winter's day.

First, remove the woody ends of the asparagus; slice the shallots, the leek and crush the garlic.  Since it's all getting blended, precision isn't essential.  Beth Le Manach, an inspirational chef, shares her secret for ultra creamy soup - a medium-large potato.

Saute the shallots, garlic and leek, giving them a bit of colour.  Then, add in water, the potato and bring to a boil.  After 5 minutes of ferocious boiling, add in the chopped asparagus stems, reserving several of the tips for garnish.  Boil another 5 minutes, or until the potatoes and asparagus is completely tender.  Blend it up and flavour with a squeeze of lemon.

I first tested with an immersion blender.  The results were alright.  But, the soup wasn't super creamy until I sent it through the Vitamix.  Afterwords, it was ultra smooth, with a there-has-to-be-heavy-cream-in-this mouth feel:

Roasted Tomato and Fennel Soup

I've never cooked with fennel, so I though I'd give it a go.

Start by roasting some tomatoes and red peppers.

Then saute onions until caramelized (I added beet leaves for extra red colour).

Make a broth (I used carrots, fennel bulb, mushrooms, kale)

Blend the roasted tomatoes and peppers along with enough broth to make a proper soup)

Roast a slice of fennel bulb for each serving.  Finish caramelizing the fennel in a frying pan.

Split Pea Soup

  Start with some onions, herbs, celery and pepper.

After adding the peas and chanterelle mushrooms and cooking until the peas become soft, it doesn't look very glamorous.

It can easily be given a nice green colour naturally, by adding pureed greens.

Garnish and serve:  Split pea soup with chanterelles

Hot & Sour Soup

The broth is made from veg stock, lime juice and red curry paste. The vegetables consist of napa cabbage, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, tomotoes and garnish with Thai basil.