Cauliflower Soup

Although I am sure this will be better on day two, I found it a little bland, even after the addition of the hot sauce included in the recipe. Uncharacteristically, I followed the recipe pretty closely, although I had to up ingredients proportionally to account for the larger than average cauliflower I had.

My main complaint about this recipe is that I missed the onion usually included in a vegetable soup. Here you just throw some carrot and celery in with cauliflower and stock, bring to a boil, then simmer until the veggies soften. Then you make a roux, add milk, and after it is heated, add a cup of cheddar (I used pepper jack) and some hot sauce. When the cheese-milk mixture has thickened, add it to the veggies, and serve. Although the recipe never called for it, I did use a potato masher to break up the cauliflower before adding the milk mixture, and I liked the texture. I think it would be equally good pureed to an even smoother texture.

Because I found it bland, and missed the onion, I added additional hot sauce as well as some snipped chives, both of which helped the flavor along. I was very glad I used the pepper jack as well, since that gave it a little more oomph. Because I really missed the onion, next time I would simply do a mirepoix then add then cauliflower and stock.