Portrait of a soup in cream

By Sagegreen • June 28, 2011 • 2 Comments

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Portrait of a soup in cream — 1 of 4 Photo by Sagegreen

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Author Notes: Experimenting with ingredients and a great new blender this became the first course for supper tonight. There were beautiful shitake mushrooms at the market today which I could not resist. A vegan friend last summer had made me something like this with just three ingredients: the florets, another type of mushroom and the almond milk. It was a bit bland. In trying to jazz this soup up, I first used raw garlic, but found it too caustic. I introduced the clementine juice to temper the sourness.I like using a little ginger. Use just the cauliflower florets, no stems with this soup. This is really simple, but full of flavor. Arame adds a great contrast in color, texture and flavor. For a green variation, you can drop the olive oil but add a fresh avocado spritzed with Meyer lemon to the blender. That version is best with a chiffonade of herbs on top. I won't upload that as a separate recipe. - Sagegreen

Serves 2-4

1 cup cauliflower florets, cut up, loosely packed
1 cup sliced fresh shitake mushrooms
1-2 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger, to taste
1/2 teaspoon grated pink Himalayan salt
2 tablespoons EVOO
juice from 2 fresh clementines or tangerine
1 1/2 - 2 cup unsweetened almond milk, depending upon desired thickness
small handful of fresh herbs such as basil, cilantro, and/or parsley
pinches of black gomasio or arame as optional garnish for contrast

Place all of the ingredients save for half of the herbs in a food processor or blender. Puree. If you want a thinner soup add more almond milk.Taste and adjust the taste by adding a little more salt, juice or oil.
Chill. Serve and garnish with fresh herbs. For more contrast add black gomasio or some arame on top.