A Soup of Cauliflower and Cheese

Name: A Soup of Cauliflower and Cheese
Yield: enough for 4 to 6
Ingredients: butter – 4 tablespoons (50g); an onion, coarsely chopped; garlic – 2 cloves, crushed; a cauliflower – broken into florets; bay leaves – 2; crème fraîche – 3/4 cup (200ml); whole-grain mustard – 1 heaping tablespoon; Gruyère, Cantal, or strong Cheddar – about 3/4 cup (120g) coarsely grated; dark rye bread – 2 slices; grated Gruyère – 1 heaping tablespoon

December 14, 2011

You could measure my life in bowls of soup. Each New Year’s Day brings a pot of lentil soup (a good-luck symbol throughout much of Europe); pea and mint soup is to celebrate early summer; cabbage soup for colds and crash diets; parsnip soup for frosty weekends; chicken broth to cleanse my soul. You probably don’t want to know about the parsimonious soup-stew I put together from the weekly fridge cleanup. I do believe in the power of soup to restore our spirits and to strengthen and protect us. Steaming, frugal, yet curiously luxurious, soup replaces many a meal in this house. With a good loaf on the bread board and fresh salad in the bowl, I have no shame in serving soup to visitors (only amusement in watching them looking round in vain for a main course). I first came up with the idea of this soup years ago, and have watched it do the rounds, yet it has never made it into any of my own books until now. It has something of the Welsh rarebit about it.

Recipe notes

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