Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Red Beet Chips

Great soup -- very rich but really draws out the flavor of cauliflower and my husband completely loved the red beet chips even though most of mine never really crisped up after frying (maybe my oil wasn't hot enough?) -- but the few that did were fabulous. I used croutons I'd made earlier for another dish and I found they didn't add much to the dish.

Served with a mesclun salad to which I added leftover slices of raw zucchini and yellow squash, some toasted pine nuts, and Nate Appleman's lemon juice and grapeseed oil dressing. It worked well as a healthy prelude to a rich creamy soup.

Appetizer was a fig jam, goat cheese and prosciutto bruschetta from the September 2010 issue of Cooks Illustrated.