The cauliflower at the markets has been superb these last few months, so we put together this soup for our last OCH Art Market of 2012 using some of that good stuff. This recipe acknowledges the season with its ingredients, but results in something light, smooth, and clean in flavor, something more suited to the balmy weather we’ve been having than the hearty stews and squash-based soups that one typically finds this time of the year.
Ingredients: cauliflower, onions, potatoes, celery, clear vegetable stock; vegetable oil, garlic; arugula, salt, pepper
1. In a large pot, place cauliflower florets, roughly chopped onions, peeled potatoes, and celery. Add enough vegetable stock and/or water to cover. Bring to a low boil, and cook for about twenty minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. (Use approximately 1 potato, 1/2 onion, and 1 stalk of celery for each head of cauliflower.)
2. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool until it is safe enough to handle, if pureeing with a blender or food processor. While waiting for the mixture to cool, heat a few tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan. Do not allow the oil to reach smoking point. Place a couple cloves of thinly sliced garlic in the hot oil, and cook the garlic on low heat until the slices are soft and the oil infused with the garlic.
3. After pureeing the cauliflower mixture, add salt to taste. Reheat and ladle soup into bowls. Before serving, drizzle a few teaspoons of the garlic oil and garlic slices over each bowl. Garnish with small arugula leaves, and a few turns of freshly-ground black pepper.
cauliflower soup, black bean and broccoli galette, olive bread, and mint iced tea
We’ve been happy to see the splendid variety of beans and peas at the farmer’s markets these last few weeks. Pink-eyed peas, crowders, butterbeans, limas…none of them take very long to cook, and they’re delicious boiled, fried, cold, leftover, in a stew, or in pretty much any culinary context we can think of. This recipe joins legumes with the rich flavors of roasted red peppers using an unorthodox technique that’s straightforward and yields wonderful results. As you can maybe tell from the title of this post, we developed this recipe so recently that we’re still working on figuring out a decent name for this dish, which we served a couple weeks ago at the OCH Art Market with a fried egg on top, feta, cilantro, and a scoop of rice.
Ingredients: red peppers, jalapeno peppers, celery, onions, garlic, tomato sauce (optional); assorted beans and peas, chopped zucchini and yellow squash
1. On a stove top, grill, or in an oven, roast whole red peppers and jalapeno peppers until the skins blacken, turning the peppers periodically for even roasting. Remove the peppers from heat, and place in a covered container for the peppers to cool and to allow the steam from the roasted peppers to loosen the skins. The jalapenos should take less time to roast, so make sure to keep an eye on them and remove them from heat when they’re roasted.
2. Once the peppers are cool, peel the peppers, and discard the skins, stems, and seeds. Collect the juices from the roasting pan and container in which the peppers were allowed to cool.
3. In a blender, combine and puree roasted peppers, pan juices, a handful of chopped onions and celery, whole cloves of garlic, a little bit of tomato sauce, and a drizzle of vegetable oil. (This mixture fragrant and versatile and will keep for a few days. It is delicious with pasta, eggs, or even served cold as a salsa of sorts. Last weekend, we mixed in chopped walnuts and minced scallions, and spooned that onto hard-boiled eggs for breakfast.)
4. Combine peas and squash with enough of the roasted pepper mixture to cover, in a pot or saucepan. Add water to thin the mixture, and bring to a boil. Cook at a slow boil for 10-15 minutes, until the legumes and squash are fully cooked and the contents of the pot have been reduced to the desired thickness. Serve in a bowl with feta and cilantro, and a fried egg on top and rice on the side.
Try this cold soup on a hot summer day. The mild flavor and texture of pureed cauliflower and potatoes serves as a base for slightly acidic goat yogurt and tender baby squash marinated in a little lemon juice, herbs, and ginger. It’s worth it to get to to the farmer’s market early — the beautiful baby squash you can find there are delicate and sweet, and tend to sell out within the first hour or two of the market opening.
Ingredients: cauliflower, potatoes, onions, baby squash, vegetable stock or water, cumin, coriander, turmeric, fennel seed, cilantro, mint, ginger, lemon juice
1. Separate cauliflower into large florets, and place in a pot with quartered potatoes, chopped onions, cumin, coriander, turmeric, fennel seed, and enough water or vegetable stock to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Let cool.
2. In a smaller pot, bring salted water to a rolling boil. Cook the baby squash for two to three minutes, so that they are barely cooked and the squash retain their bright greens and yellows. Transfer the squash to a bowl of ice water, then drain.
3. Finely mince ginger, cilantro, and mint. Combine with lemon juice and water, at a ratio of 1:2. Marinate the squash in this mixture. We find that the lemon juice without the water can be overpowering because baby squash is so delicate in flavor.
4. Puree the cauliflower and potatoes with the cooking liquid, add salt to taste, and chill. The cooling process will thicken the soup somewhat and also change your perception of how salty the soup is, so keep some stock on hand with which to adjust the texture of the soup.
5. Before serving, add freshly-ground pepper and taste the soup again before serving to see if you want to add any more salt.
5. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Spoon goat yogurt into the bowl, and place a baby squash or two on top, making sure to include a little of the lemon juice and minced herbs as garnish. The consistency of the soup should be thick enough to float the baby squash.
tsainola 