Cauliflower and Leek Soup

I have always loved this recipe in it’s original form (from the Thermomix EDC cookbook, April 2014 edition), but I have adapted it slightly to give it a little more zing.

Apart from being a lovely soup to share with your family, this is also a great starter at a dinner party … it can be made in advance and simply reheated … it ticks lots of boxes by being gluten free, vegetarian, nut free (see note below) and Paleo, and can be “dressed up” to look impressive.

Every time I have served this soup guests cannot believe there is no flour in it … it is merely the cauliflower and leek cooked and pureed the way a Thermomix does so well.

Buy a whole cauliflower, cut it into florets, wash and put aside 800g for the soup, and keep the rest in a sealed container in the fridge to add to salads or other cooked dishes during the week … always great to have ready to go.

If you don’t have your own veggie stock concentrate, then buy a commercial stock, preferably organic.  And if you wish to keep this nut free, substitute toasted pepitas for the pistachios.

Gina @ The Passionate Pantry

Cauliflower and Leek Soup

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 leek washed and chopped roughly
• 40 g olive oil
  
  
• 800 g cauliflower florets
• 600 g filtered water
• 2 tbls veggie stock paste or 600g commercial stock to replace the water/paste
  
  
• 40 g butter
  
  
• 6 sprigs parsley roughly chopped, or more to taste
  
  
• sea salt and pepper to taste
  
  

FOR SERVING

• Basil and Parsley pesto see here with extra olive oil added to make it quite runny
• Toasted pistachios

Method

 

1. Place leek and olive oil into TM bowl and chop 3 seconds / speed 7, scrape around bowl
2. Sauté 5 minutes / Veroma / Speed 1 with MC off
3. Add cauliflower, water and veggie stock paste (or commercial stock) and cook 15 minutes / 100 / speed 1
4. Add butter and cook for a further 5 minutes / 100 / speed 1
5. Add parsley and blend for 1 minute, slowly increasing speed from speed 1 to speed 9 (see safety note above)
6. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary
7. Serve drizzled with the basil and parsley oil, and scatter over the pistachios

Notes

Buy a whole cauliflower, cut it into florets, wash and put aside 800g for the soup, and keep the rest in a sealed container in the fridge to add to salads or other cooked dishes during the week … always great to have ready to go. If you don’t have your own veggie stock concentrate, then buy a commercial stock, preferably organic. And if you wish to keep this soup nut free, then use toasted pepitas in place of the toasted pistachios.

SAFETY NOTE

It can be a little scary pureeing hot food in the Thermomix … it does an amazing job, but the noise it creates when doing this can be disconcerting. So there are some basic rules I ALWAYS follow when pureeing hot food:

REMEMBER - you are dealing with a very hot liquid … so always take care

NEVER - overfill the bowl (if you have a lot of soup to puree then split it and do it in two lots … it is still very quick, and you will get a lovely smooth result)

I set my timer for 1 minute (if you puree for any less, the soup will not be as smooth and creamy); I slowly increase the speed from speed 1 to speed 6 taking AT LEAST 15 seconds to do this so that my timer has now counted down to 45 seconds; Once I am on 45 seconds I know I can safely increase my speed to speed 9 and allow the Thermomix to continue pureeing

ALWAYS take your time with pureeing, don’t be in a rush, and enjoy the results