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Soul Food Soup! Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Cheese Soup for Random Recipes

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Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Cheese Soup

Soul Food Soup!

Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Cheese Soup

Random Recipes

Time for my Random Recipes entry, it has been a busy month what with romantic meals, snow and cooking challenges, but I particularly wanted to make something for “Dashing Dom” and his monthly challenge because Random Recipes is celebrating a significant date in its diary – a First Birthday. And the challenge? Well, let’s see what Dom said in his post over at Belleau Kitchen:

“… so to mark this first birthday I am going to ask you to go back one year and choose again from that first random book… for those of you who took part in that first challenge it’s pretty simple… for those who joined in later-on do exactly the same, that first book you used to enter my challenge… and for those Random Recipes Virgins out there… simply choose one of your cookbooks at random…”

Picking the recipe at random

I had a wee problem with going back to my first Random Recipe which was Fig Bread and Butter Pudding, as it was picked from a pile of recipe cards, no book to choose my recipe from…….so, Dom told me to use the same pile of recipe cards and randomly pick one, see photo above, which I did…….and out of the pile came a soup recipe, Easy Cauliflower Soup with Stilton served with Chilli Toasts  taken from a Waitrose recipe card from December 2005. Luckily I did have some Stilton cheese and some blanched frozen cauliflower florets in the freezer, so it was soup making lift-off, and what better meal is there for a cold February day. I didn’t make the chilli toasts as I had a wonderful artisan baguette and it seemed a shame to toast it and add chillies to it, plus I was not sure about chilli with Stilton to be honest, so I just made the soup element from the card.

Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Soup

The day was a gloomy and overcast, and the glistening white snow of last week was now grey slush; garden duties were not as raw and mind numbingly cold but, I somehow missed the sparkling light and icicle clad trees……..a large pot of creamy soup with cheese seemed to be the perfect lunch, especially after a brisk hen-hut cleaning session. I made this soup on the wood-burning stove and as it quietly bubbled away I thought of other soup days throughout the winter – vibrant red soups, hearty bean soups, grass green leafy soups and creamy fish chowders, they really are soul food in all senses, warm and tasty as well as unctuous and hearty………and the beauty is you can have your bread and eat it.

Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Soup

Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Soup

Print recipe
Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Soup
Serves 6
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 20 minutes
Total time 35 minutes
Region British
From magazine Waitrose Recipes December 2005
Cauliflower and Stilton are a great taste combination and this creamy, velvety vegetarian soup

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 fresh bay leaf
  • 1 large potato, peeled and diced
  • 1 large cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 3 tbsp half fat crème fraîche
  • 250g Stilton cheese

Directions

Step 1 In a large saucepan, heat the oil and gently cook the onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the bay leaf and 1½ litres of cold water, then the potato and cauliflower. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are just tender.
Step 2 Remove the bay leaf then purée the soup using a hand blender or a liquidiser until smooth. Pour back into the pan, add the crème fraîche and crumble in the Stilton. Heat through gently to melt the cheese then season generously with freshly ground black pepper.

This soup was delicious – creamy and quite cheesy without being overly rich. I did not pulse the soup completely, as I like a little texture, and I did take the serving advice on the recipe card and served each bowl with freshly ground black pepper…….I am confident that the chilli toasts would have been to fiery for the mellow flavours of the cauliflower and Stilton, but I may toast the bread with a smidgen of garlic next time. I added less stock than was called for as we like our soups on the thick side, and I would definitely keep it that way next time.  Before I leave for today, I would just like to say Happy Birthday to Random Recipes and may there be many more challenges! I will see you later, with a book review or two, some baking and a super easy Fish on Friday dish too, take care and choose soup for the soul, it’s good for you!  Karen

Creamy Cauliflower & Stilton Soup

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Comments

  1. Dominic says

    Bloody lovely!!!! I do love a nice creamy soup and the blue cheese element is intriguing and very tempting. I think the cold weather is on its way back this weekend so a nice bowl of this is rather perfect! Thanks so much for entering and being such a fearsome supporter of Random Recipes every month xx

    Reply

  4. Lauren says

    I like a thick and lumpy soup myself. I’ll have to try this out since I’m always trying to work in more vegetables. I hate cauliflower raw, but I like it pretty well when it’s cooked (same with broccoli), so this soup would be perfect.

    Reply

  5. Fishfingers for tea says

    We prefer thick soup here too, when it’s thin I just can’t get away from the ‘but it’s a drink!’ thing. Broccoli and Stilton is my all time favourite soup but I like the idea of cauliflower too.

    Reply

  6. Marie says

    Have made this soup many times Karen. The Waitrose Recipe cards have always been the best. They are always delicious and work wonderfully. Your soup looks really good! xxoo

    Reply

    • Karen says

      Thanks Marina, yes, Stilton is seen as a VERY Christmassy cheese, but I love it all year round! This would be good made with another blue cheese.

      Reply

  11. Debby Emadian says

    Perfect comfort food…Recently I’ve been of the opinion “cauliflower…why?” then I had one in my veg box so had to use it found a curried vegetable soup recipe over at ‘Meetmeatmikes’ made it and now am hooked…I would even go out of my way to buy one. It looks like I may have another reason to go out an buy one now…stilton…wow…sounds yummy…
    Thanks for sharing,
    Deb

    Reply

    • Karen says

      Many thanks Debby! I agree that cauliflowers seem rather bland on their own, but when curried and creamed with cheese and used in soups, they really sing!

      Reply

  12. shuhan says

    came over from dom’s! this is definitely soul food. I know people seem to have this bias against cauliflower, but i really like it, so this sounds perfect!

    Reply

  15. tobys proud mummy toys says

    I absolutely love Cauliflower and have almost replaced rice and potatoes with it making it a healthier choice for all mealtimes now this soup sounds delicious and cant wait to give it a go soon for me and my bubba and my secret tip how to give him soup is to sneak it in his tippy cup

    Reply

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