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Curried Cauliflower Soup

Right, I think it’s time to unleash a recipe on to the blog. This has been quite a crucial one for me.

It’s clear that ‘cruciferous vegetables’ should be part of a healthy diet. Research studies suggest that they lower rates of breast, pancreatic, bladder, lung, prostate and colon cancer; they help protect cell DNA from damage; and they have antioxidant properties, which apparently is a good thing.

The big three are broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.

And guess what? I can’t stand any of those. Which could be a problem, especially if I wanted to eat cruciferous vegetables every day.

Fortunately, I’ve already found a recipe which I rather enjoy, and which ticks the box: Curried Cauliflower Soup.

Bear with me if you think that sounds a bit grim, because I did too. It turns out to be very nice, and I’ve been having it for my lunch more days than not this month. So here we go…

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Adapted from the How Not To Die cookbook (Bluebird, 2018)

(Single page recipe to print out, PDF)

This takes about an hour to make, although the second half is just watching it cook.

The two things that might catch us out here are the vegetable stock and the spice. It’s typical of these sorts of recipes that they just state: “Add a litre of vegetable stock”, as if you had some ready in the fridge. In recipes, vegetable stock is the same thing as vegetable broth, by the way, but not the same as Scotch Broth. The easiest way to make up the stock is to use some vegetable stock cubes (Knorr ones make about half a litre each); however, it can be more satisfying – and perhaps healthier – if we have the time to make up our own with some leftover vegetables – there are numerous recipes online such as this one from the fab BBC Good Food website.

The other ingredient to note is the spice. In the cookbook above, it suggests using some ‘spice mix’, which is detailed elsewhere in that book, mainly to hide how complicated it is. To be honest, it wasn’t hard to make this up in advance and store it in a jar to use in various recipes, but it’s an optional approach. We could perhaps just use one or two of the herbs and spices in the list.

Equipment needed:

  • Large saucepan
  • Food processor or stick blender

Prep the spices (combine these):

  • 1 teaspoon garlic paste
  • 5 teaspoons ginger paste
  • 5 teaspoons curry powder
  • 2 teaspoons date sugar/syrup
  • 1 teaspoon spice*

Prep the rest (keep them separate):

  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 cauliflower, in pieces
  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • (optional) spinach

*Whatever you like, I guess, but Dr Michael Greger suggests having a blended mix in the cupboard to use in all sorts of situations like this. I made mine up from the following ingredients in the proportions shown (e.g. could be teaspoonfuls):

  • nutritional yeast (6)
  • dried thyme (4)
  • garlic powder (4)
  • mustard powder (4)
  • paprika (4)
  • onion powder (3)
  • dried parsley (3)
  • dried basil (3)
  • ground turmeric (0.5)
  • celery seeds (0.5)

Instructions

  1. Pour a quarter of the stock into a large saucepan.
  2. Add the chopped red onion.
  3. Cook for 5 minutes.
  4. Stir in the spices, then the cauliflower and the rest of the stock.
  5. Simmer for 30 minutes.
  6. Optionally, throw in some spinach for the last minute or so.
  7. Add the lemon juice, then purée it all in the food processor (probably in a couple of batches) or with the stick blender.