Curried Cauliflower Soup

Jenny is in perpetual search for easy, weeknight recipes to attempt to feed her family. When they balk, she just eats more.

I will confess right here that I used Curried Cauliflower Soup more as a recipe memo than a document faithfully followed, but I believe what we have here is a weeknight recipe that is both soulful and warming, a bit of comfort as you stare out at the bare trees and wonder sadly where you left your parka. 

I decided that if I was going to be roasting cauliflower, I may as well go ahead and do my onions on that pan too, drizzled with a tad of olive oil.  This process took about 25 minutes and please be careful and I was two minutes from burning up my pretties. 

From there I tossed the onions and cauliflower in a pan with two tablespoons of butter, and glanced at my recipe. I saw it was time to throw on my curry powder, but what of the other spices?  No one says! It was a bit like landing in Rabat without a map, in need of continuing on to Casablanca. 

But I persevered, people, because I am a woman of the world, thinking for myself  along this crazy little journey we call life! Well, I am a woman of Northwest Washington actually, and my biggest adventures tend to involve cleaning products. But anyway, I had this covered. 

I concluded it was time to add those spices, too, and I confess I was not terribly measure-y about the whole exercise. A bit here a bit there, and some kosher salt to give it all a lift. 

You can’t really overcook this, but I can tell you that it will be a little bit of work with the immersion blender unless you get that cauliflower super soft; I would say about 20 minutes.  I like my soup on the chunky side anyway, so it was fine for me to not make it anywhere near as smooth as it appears in the lovely photo. Taste, and salt as needed. What really brings this together is the yogurt – I used fully fatted plain Greek yogurt, and yes I may have dumped the soup right on top of my nearly empty container of yogurt and ate it just like that. Don’t judge.

Curried Cauliflower Soup by kmartinelli

1 head cauliflower (about 2 1/4 pounds), cut into florets (about 6 cups)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped butter
3 onions, sliced 1 inch thick
½ teaspoons turmeric
½ teaspoons dried coriander
½ teaspoons hot paprika or chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
4 cups water
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup yogurt or labane (optional; adjust to suit tastes)

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.