Creamy Cauliflower Soup with herbed white truffle butter

Since we are a young couple on a budget, Charisse decided to try a discount grocery store that we drive by everyday but have never been in. We usually do all our shopping at farmers markets and Trader Joe's but she  was feeling adventurous and hunting for a bargain and wandered into the Food Savers to see what all the fuss was about. It had been a long day at work and Food Savers was not what we expected. This huge store was a maze of aisles and packaged foods with strange finds here and there. The produce was a disappointment and the meat didn't seem all that fresh, so Charisse wandered and wandered, lost and in a daze, wary of the cow tongues and pigs feet she kept passing. When Charisse got back home Eric asked what she a bought, and the answer was " I DON'T KNOW!"  We ended up with a head of red cabbage, a head of cauliflower, some bizarre peppers, condensed milk, and a ton of shallots. Luckily we had some new recipies to that we weren't going to try for a while so we got some use out of what we had. This weeks recipes are the results of trying something new, which doesn't always work out. Next week, back to Trader Joes. 

First of, let's talk about soup. Charisse loves soup, especially creamy hardy soups. She'll often eat soup as an entree on a chilly day and find that it is a great healthy way to get a ton of veggies in your diet. This soup is made from a bunch of random stuff from the Food Savers adventure and it turned out really amazing. As in really really amazing. The main ingredient was the head of cauliflower and shallots, tons of fresh parsley and to make this dish feel a bit dressed up its topped it off with a white truffle butter. Truffle butter by the way, is an amazingly simple, fairly inexpensive way to really dress up something that is served with butter normally, or just needs a little something extra to put it over the top. Extremely simple to make, and it keeps, so you don't have to worry about using it all at once. We served the soup with some crusty monkey bread and a light salad (coming up later this week!). It was a simple meal, but it presented well and tasted amazing.  Cheers.

Pictures and Recipe after the break

 Creamy Cauliflower Soup
What You Will Need

2 Tbs butter
3 shallots (minced)
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 large potatoes peeled and cubed
2 carrots chopped
20 ounces of chicken stock (about 2 cans)
1 head of cauliflower chopped
2 cups of heavy cream
1 tsp  salt
1 tsp  white pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg (fresh if possible)
a handful of fresh minced parsley

In your dutch oven melt the butter over medium heat and stir in shallots and garlic until browned.  About 5 minutes.  Stir in potatoes and carrots and cook another 5 minutes.  Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Next add your cauliflower, reduce the heat and cover the pot, simmering until all the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. 

You will want to puree this soup to get that nice creamy texture.  If you make a lot of creamy soups or sauces you should consider in investing in an immersion blender which is a hand blender.  It is wonderful because you can puree your soup directing in the pot rather than transferring it to a traditional blender.  If you do not have an immersion blender you will want to work in batches and puree the mixture in a blender.

Return to the dutch oven and simmer on low heat.  Add the cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parsley.  Serve hot with a small dollop of herbed white truffle butter.


Herbed White Truffle Butter
What You Will Need

1 stick butter at room temperature
3 Tbs white truffle oil
2 Tbs chives (minced)
2 Tbs parsley (minced)

Blend all ingredients together.  Great on soups, potatoes, and vegetables.  Store in refrigerator

Photographer's note: Some things just don't photograph well. Period. Like the making of this soup. Everything was white and gloppy, and looked HORRIBLE through the lens, even though it smelled so good! It had that look that would make me stop reading because it just didn't look appetizing , even though it tasted amazing. So all the pictures today are of the final presentation.