How to make: Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Over the holidays I picked up an exciting new cookbook that was just MADE for winter.  It's called "100 Best Fresh Soups".  Considering it was only about $6, I think I got my money's worth.  I attempted this soup in early January, and I was pleasantly surprised on how good it was!  I just happened to have some cauliflower to use, and this was the perfect way to use it up.  Also, Andy really liked it too, even though his initial reaction was something like this:

Andy:  "Ohh, you made soup?  Smells good, what kind?"
Laurie:  "Cauliflower"
Andy:  "ewww"
Laurie: "Just try it first!"

Gather your ingredients:

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Butter
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup diced leeks
1 large head of cauliflower
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
salt & pepper
Parmesean cheese and olive oil, for garnish

Start by dicing up all your veggies:

Cut the cauliflower into florets and cut the stalk into small pieces.

Chopped leeks and onion

Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan

Cook the leeks and onion for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Here they are 10 minutes later!

Add the cauliflower.  Hmm... my pan's a little small.  Time to switch to the wok.

Saute the cauliflower with the other veggies for 2-3 minutes.

Add the stock and bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes.

Here's the cooked veggies after 20 minutes!

Transfer to a food processor or blender, process until smooth, and return to rinsed-out saucepan.  If you have the smallest food processor ever, like me, just blend in batches.

Heat the soup through, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
 Feel free to add more stock to the consistency you want.

Finished!  Top with Parmesan cheese and drizzled olive oil.

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How to make: Chicken Tortilla Chili

Today I am going to continue my series of making use of cooking an entire chicken.  Previously I detailed the actual chicken roasting process here, and followed that up with how to make your own chicken stock here.  So at this point, you should have extra chicken left over from your bird, as well as some stock.  With those two ingredients, we will be making a soup of my own concoction, Chicken Tortilla Chili.

I really came up with this soup because 1) I was hungry and needed to make dinner, 2) I had a random assortment of ingredients that wasn't quite chili and wasn't quite tortilla soup either So I came up with this hybrid of sorts, and it wasn't half bad!  In fact, it was DELICIOUS.

Gather your ingredients:

Chicken Tortilla Chili

Cooked chicken (pre-cook it or use leftover chicken)

Chicken Stock (one can or homemade, enough to have enough liquid)

   Optional: Add water if you're out of stock and add a chicken bullion tablet

2 16 oz cans chili (kidney) beans or pinto beans, drained

2 16 oz cans of diced tomatoes (or 1 32 oz can)

1 8oz can of tomato paste

half an onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves

handful to a bunch of chopped cilantro

frozen corn (or canned, if you have it)

any other veggies you'd like to throw in, green pepper, celery, hot peppers, etc.

~1 cup corn flour masa

Spices:  feel free to go crazy with the spices, whatever tastes good to you, measurements are just guidelines (I normally just start adding stuff willy nilly), add things to taste.

     1/2 to 1 tsp Salt 

     1/2 tsp Pepper, 

     2 tsp Cumin, 

     1 tsp Garlic power, 

     1 tsp Onion Powder, 

     1 tsp Coriander, 

     1/2 - 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (however much heat you want!)

Directions:  Put all of this stuff in a pot, simmer it for awhile (~15-20 minutes), garnish with cilantro or cheese, eat.

And don't forget to notice the delightful flavor brought on by the masa.  Secret ingredient!!!

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