Roast Cauliflower and Other Soups

How to construct a perfect soup; five mostly-veggie soups; and, a roast cauliflower and celeriac soup with kale pesto to begin with.

It is soup weather.

And I’m quite fussy about soups. There is no room, in my mind, for a bland bowl of sameness just warmed and slopped into a dish. A good soup must have layers of texture and flavour: a splash of sour, a crunch of salt, a swirl of cold against the hot foundation, so that every mouthful is alive with interest.

In this setting, the soup is really just a base colour onto which you paint flavours and textures that, when combined, create something greater than their individual parts. This is why you will always find my soups topped with a swirl of crème fraîche or some sort of spoonable sauce, and a scattering of crunch like nuts or fried breadcrumbs.

As here in the cauliflower and celeriac soup recipe below. The creamy, sweet warmth of roast cauliflower against the savoury, salty oomph of kale pesto. A soup to aid hibernation.

Other mostly-veggie soups ideas

Once you’ve made the cauliflower and celeriac soup, you might like to try these too:

This roast pumpkin soup has gremolata-ish topping for kick and spicy pumpkin seeds for crunch:

Atonement for Halloween soup

More crunch, this time dukkah, to contrast with silky carrot soup:

Ras-el-Hanout Carrot Soup

Rather fancy this one. Creamed sweetcorn and bacon chowder with poached eggs and an addictive sweetcorn and spring onion relish for swirling:

Creamed corn, mushrooms & crispy kale, soup in a similar vein & culinary ear-worms

And finally, something chunkier in this vegetable and borlotti bean broth:

gluts_gluttony

A post shared by @gluts_gluttony

You’ll also find a few more soup recipes (Dad’s Chicken Broth, Self-Sufficiency Stew to name a few) in my new book, Rough Patch, which is out on 6th February (perhaps I mentioned that already?).

And, sorry to wang on about this, but pre-orders are, quite literally, everything, so if you are planning to buy the book when it comes out, placing that order today will have a disproportionate effect on its success.

Ok, thank you, sorry for the hard sell, back to soup.

Roast Cauliflower and Celeriac Soup with Kale Pesto

Roasting the veg adds a caramel sweetness to the soup and intensifies the flavours. The pesto is quite pungent, so use sparingly and keep any leftovers in small tubs in the freezer for soup-swirling emergencies.

Serves 4-6

• 1kg cauliflower, outer leaves discarded and smaller leaves set aside

• ½ celeriac (approx. 300g peeled weight)

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil