stay warm this winter with roasted cauliflower soup

every once in awhile, i get a bee in my bonnet to eat healthier and it almost always includes thinking that becoming vegetarian is a good idea. i could never fully go vegetarian, since i'm utterly unable to give up bacon (can one be a bacotarian?), but there you have it. true to form, we decided that we'd eat vegetarian during february. or at the very least cook vegetarian during february. we're a week in and it's actually going pretty well. our weather is cold, grey, dreary and rainy and what's better for that than a warming, delicious roasted cauliflower soup?

i only learned to roast cauliflower, in the oven, with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of cumin, in the past year or so and it's now my go-to method, whether we're eating is as a side dish or letting it, like here, take the center stage as the star of the show.

i have pinned quite a number of cauliflower soup recipes on pinterest of late, since it's in season, often local, and one of my favorite brassicas (we like it much better than boring old broccoli). but i didn't follow any particular one of them, but just let the inspiration start there and become something of my own.

roasted cauliflower soup

1.5 heads of cauliflower (that's what i happened to have, you could do with one large one as well)

1/2 bulb of fresh fennel, diced

1 large onion, diced

2-3 cloves of garlic

50 grams butter (approx. half a stick, for those of you in the states)

1 can coconut milk

1 C good white wine

4 C good veggie stock (or chicken stock, if you're not going vegetarian)

for toppings:

crumbled bacon (again if you're not trying to be vegetarian)

toasted bread crumbs (if you are)

crunchy onions (called ristet løg in danish)

a handful of black olives

wash and pull apart the head of cauliflower into florets, cutting ones in half that seem especially large. arrange them on baking paper on an oven tray. drizzle over a bit of good olive oil and a small pinch of ground cumin on each one. pop them into a 180°C/375°F oven for 20 minutes or so until they are softened and getting a bit brown on the edges.

meanwhile, sauté the diced onions, garlic and fennel in the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot. when they are softened, but not brown, add the toasted cauliflower and the liquids. allow them to simmer for 15-20 minutes or so, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. use a stick blender to blend the soup creamy, taking care not to splash and burn yourself (i make the mistakes so you don't have to). you can return it to the stove at this point and let it simmer a bit more to meld the flavors or you can eat it right away. 

serve with a bit of crumbled bacon or toasted bread crumbs or crunchy onions on top. we have a ready-made product here called ristet løg (roasted onions) - and it's what you see in my photos. you could also make a gremolata or some pesto or mojo to dollop on top. a spoonful of creme fraiche or maybe some crumbled goat cheese would be good as well. the options are pretty much endless. i served it with slices of bread, fresh out of the oven and it was a warming, filling, fragrant and healthy dinner. and possibly also pretty good for breakfast, should you be so inclined or need to take photos of it in better light.

vegetarian lunch for one - beluga lentils

oddly enough, our commitment to eating less meat around here has lasted into February. and i'd have to say that i'm feeling increasingly comfortable with it and feeling less tempted to throw bacon into dishes at the last minute.

i find it easiest to eat vegetarian when i'm making lunch for myself. no one else's palate to accomodate allows me to experiment and explore new flavors. i'm also pushing myself to be a bit more inventive with what's at hand. here's the result from today...

beluga lentil lunch

300 grams of beluga lentils (little round black ones)

1 veggie bouillon cube

1 bay leaf

500 ml (2 cups) of water - you may need to add a bit more if it boils away before you think the lentils are done.

1 small onion, diced

a handful of fresh thyme

handful of hazelnuts, toasted in the pan and then chopped roughly

1 large spoonful of honey

juice of half a lemon

olive oil

soft, fresh goat cheese (mine was packed in oil with seasonings)

rinse the lentils, then cook on the stove, like you would rice, until the liquid boils mostly away - about 20 minutes.

while it's cooking, stir together a generous spoonful of honey and the juice of half a lemon, thyme and a drizzle of olive oil in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. dice onion and add it. toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan (keeping an eye on them so they don't burn). roll the hazelnuts in a towel to remove the husks and roughly chop them. once the lentils are done, drain off any excess water (tho' theoretically, there shouldn't be any) and add several large spoonsful of them to your dressing/onion bowl. stir well, top with soft goat cheese and toasted hazelnuts and enjoy your healthy and delicious solitary lunch. there will be enough lentils left over to do it again tomorrow.

a reluctant vegetarian

beans for lunch

tho' i'm not much of a maker of new year's resolutions, nearly every january, i am inspired to embark on some new healthy eating campaign. i think it's the overload of sweets and heavy, fatty food from christmas that does it. often, what i think is "we're going to eat a lot less meat around here." and this year was no different. between christmas & new year's, i went online and changed our weekly organic box delivery to the vegetarian box. it comes with enough non-meat goodies and recipes for four meals. it's a good mix of fresh vegetables and beans or pasta and tofu or goat cheese. it's different every week and they're very good at providing inspiration with new ingredients (for example, something called a "silver beet" (directly translated) that is a winter green of sorts) and staples (potatoes, carrots).

i don't want to be a vegetarian per se, but i would like us to eat less meat and thereby enjoy the meat we do eat that much more. i'd rather buy the occasional organic chicken for a sunday roast (and afterwards, a good pot of chicken stock) than eat manufactured, water plumped chicken breasts from chickens that led a dismal life, three times a week. it's a factor too that the production of animals for human consumption is, in general, one of the hardest things on our environment and one of the biggest contributors to climate change. so, we try to eat less meat.

but having grown up in the midwest, the urge is strong to think that no meal is complete without meat. i can stir up a pot of beans or a veggie soup or a stir-fry, but nearly every time, at the last minute, i think, "hmm, some bacon would be quite nice in this." even the beautiful marriage of flavors that is potato leek soup often gets a bit of crumbly bacon on top when served around here. it's hard to fight your upbringing.

however, i recently did fight it and with great results. so great, in fact, that i utterly failed to photograph it. i made a truly vegetarian lasagne. no last minute bacon or any other kind of meat! and it was delicious!

veggie lasagne

3 carrots, grated

2 parsnips, grated

2 large beefsteak tomatoes, diced

1 zucchini, grated

3 leeks, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or pressed - i've grown to loathe my garlic press, because it's so hard to clean, so i just bash the garlic with the side of my knife and chop it up as best i can)

1 eggplant, thinly sliced, salted, left to stand for 5-10 minutes, then rinsed

1 fennel, thinly sliced

1 jar/can crushed tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1 veggie bouillon cube

pepper

salt

chili flakes

whatever herbs you have around (my thyme is still growing strong, even tho' it was covered with snow for a month)

bread crumbs for topping

lasagne pasta (if you use fresh, you don't need to boil it first, if you use the dried kind, do give a boil to al dente)

1 recipe of bechamel sauce (i'm linking you because i always make husband make this and haven't got the slightest idea how it's done.)  i only know that to that recipe, i would add a cup of grated cheese (we use prima donna - an aged gouda) and a good grating of fresh nutmeg, because that's what husband does.

sauté off your leeks and garlic in a good glug of olive oil. add the grated carrots, zucchini and parsnips. after they begin to soften, add the chopped tomato and the can of tomatoes, plus bay leaf, bouillon cube and herbs. salt and pepper to taste. if it doesn't look liquidy enough, you can add a bit of water - i usually rinse the can and just toss that half a can of water in with all of the goodness that remains on the can. simmer the sauce while you thinly slice the eggplant and fennel. use a mandolin if you dare (after my recent adventures in felting, which resulted in quite a lot of needle-related injuries, i stayed away from the mandolin this time).

next, layer your fresh lasagne pasta in the bottom of a pan you've buttered or given a coat of olive oil, on top of that, a layer of thinly-sliced eggplant and about half of your sliced fennel. spoon the tomato sauce over it, then another layer of pasta, eggplant, fennel and tomato sauce. ladle the creamy, cheesy bechamel over the top of it, using a knife to encourage it to sink down into all of the nooks and crannies. top with bread crumbs and bake in a 180°C/350°F oven for 45 minutes to an hour - until it's simmering and bubbling and you simply can't stand to wait for it any longer.

serve it with a simple salad. it tastes even better the next day, but you may not have leftovers.

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i'm often home alone when it comes to lunchtime (such is often the fate of the independent entrepreneur). i find it easier to do a vegetarian meal for myself when my family's not around. (i wonder why that is?) but just because you're alone, doesn't mean you can't make yourself something healthy and delicious.

beans for lunch: a solitary lunch

400 grams of dried beans (pinto, black, white, red - whatever you have on hand)

1 carrot, cut into chunks

1 parsnip, cut into chunks

2 bay leaves

10-12 whole peppercorns

1 handful of fresh (or dried) thyme

1 small onion

3 cloves of garlic

salt & pepper

1 avocado

1 small red onion, diced

soak the beans overnight and discard the liquid, rinsing the beans. place them in a pot with fresh liquid and throw in the rest of the ingredients. cook them until the beans are tender (45 minutes - 1 hour).

dice your onion and avocado and combine it with a few spoonsful of the cooked beans. you can either include the carrots and parsnips as you ladle the beans into your bowl, or not, depending on your taste. i used a slotted spoon to avoid the "soup" the beans are in, as i wanted a hearty lunch, not a soup, but you could leave the liquid there and have more of a soup.  there will be plenty of beans left over for another use...a salad, or for lunch tomorrow, or to be mashed into refried beans for tacos later with the family.

you could put on a dollop of yogurt or creme fraiche and eat it greedily for your solitary lunch. and it would be even easier and quicker with a can of beans.

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for more goodness, check out this new food blog by mari, she's got a couple of vegetarian recipes wherein she (mostly) resists adding bacon.

and some properly vegan recipes that inspire here.