"maybe, just maybe, this might be the cauliflower cheese soup I have been searching for all my life. This might be the one that wouldn't break into watery pockets of bland cauliflower purée. This might be the one that would be supremely creamy and still have lots of cheesy flavour. This might be it." Dollop of Cream
There are at least three reasons why this is my subject for the day.
Number one is that on Monday I am hosting one of my book groups which involves lunch, and so I have, of course, been wondering what to provide that won't need me to spend any time in the kitchen. I have pondered on quiches and tarts, one of which was Nigel Slater's wonderful cheese and onion tart that I wrote about a while ago. Which got me to thinking about cheese.
Then, because I didn't really have a topic in mind for today I turned to his book Tender Volume 1 and the little yellow sticky post-its that are marking things I might use some time. There are heaps of them. About half-way through I came across the recipe title at the head of this post - A soup of cauliflower and cheese. What really sucked me in was his comment at the end of the introduction:
"I first came up with the idea of this soup years ago, and have watched it do the rounds, yet it has has never made it into any of my own books till now. It has something of the Welsh rarebit about it." Nigel Slater
It was the Welsh rarebit which got me. I do love Welsh rarebit. Mind you I have now discovered that Cauliflower cheese soup is claimed by the Scots as a classic Scottish dish and that picture at the top of the page is from a Scot - Nick Nairn, whose recipe Cauliflower and mull cheddar soup appears on the Dollop of Cream website. The writer, by the way, who asked the question in my opening quote answered with a resounding "It is" and claims it is now made regularly on weeknights in their home.
The idea of cauliflower cheese soup also neatly slotted into my idea of trying out different recipes of classics. I have been pondering on cauliflower cheese, so that's what I shall do. Although starting with a soup is sort of starting at the end. The aim being to mostly try different 'classic' versions, finishing with some variations.
So cauliflower cheese soup it is although I may chicken out for my book group and do something else.
Nigel Slater has two slightly differing recipes for cauliflower cheese soup - the one in Tender Volume 1 and another one from Real Food which he calls Cauliflower cheese and mustard soup, which is his first go at it, so it's a little bit strange that in Tender Volume 1 he says he has not published it before, because really the only difference is that this first recipe has a potato in it - dropped in the later version. I found two people who had tried this first recipe - a website called Eat the Right Stuff, and one called Cook Book Addict Creates. This lady didn't like it one bit, and drew a glum face on the page in her cookbook:
"Review: 1 star! What a disappointment! This recipe did not taste as good as it looked. It was bland and boring. Far too creamy. Neither of us liked it at all. I even attempted a rescue attempt by dissolving a Knorr Vegetable stock pot into it to no avail."
Which was somewhat offputting. However, the second one from Eat the Right Stuff described it as 'perfect' and 'comfort food at its best'. Which just goes to prove that either some people are better cooks than others, or, more likely, we don't all like the same things. Pictures below - on the left the disappointed one, and on the right the delighted one.
But what about the 'improved' version in Tender Volume 1? Well this also doesn't have an 'official' recipe online but a few people have tried it, although I am only referencing one here - A soup of cauliflower and cheese - Kitchen Delights - whose author doesn't really comment other than saying she is going to enter it into a local cooking competition, from which one must infer that it was a success. Quite a few others tried it however, and declared it good.
But I couldn't leave it at that could I? I just had to go and see if anyone had done anything wild with the idea of cauliflower cheese in a soup. The answer is that there are indeed many, many recipes with this name - sometimes slightly varied - on the net, which divide into two categories - those which are, probably like Nigel, relatively unadventurous, and those who experiment a bit more. And no Ottolenghi has not tackled this one as yet.
Relatively unadventurous and therefore similar to Nigel are those who might leave the cauliflower whole, or add something else. Worcestershire sauce seemed to be popular for example. Into this category come: two from BBC Good Food: Cauliflower Cheese soup and Cauliflower cheese soup - Annie Rigg plus Simple cheesy cauliflower soup - Allrecipes.
I then found a blogger and Taste who roasted the cauliflower for more flavour - garlic too: Roasted garlic, cheddar, cauliflower soup - Ambitious Kitchen and Roast cauliflower cheese soup - Taste and perhaps I should add in here Cauliflower cheese soup from delicious. which put the soup under the grill with the cheese on top - the Welsh rarebit concept or the French onion soup concept if you prefer. Actually Nigel suggests that you finish the soup with cheesy croutons:
"toast the bread on both side, cover with grated cheese and let it melt under a hot grill. Cut into triangles and float them on the soup."
Then there were two who added in broccoli, Best broccoli cauliflower cheese soup - Modern Minimalism and Paprika spiced cauliflower and broccoli soup with cheddar cheese - Sarah Hobbs/Taste and one which added pear from Coles - Cauliflower, pear and blue cheese soup
And last of all a touch of Italy by switiching to Parmesan: Cauliflower and parmesan soup with brown butter and sage - Shannon Bennett/delicious. and Cauliflower and parmesan soup with gremolata oil - Sylvia Colloca/delicious.
I have to say that having expanded my search into variations of Nigel's original recipe I am now pondering on maybe trying one of them. Which one to choose however? I'm quite tempted by the roasted cauliflower versions and also the ones that add broccoli, because deep down I have this fear that Nigel's version might be a bit bland? Not helped by finding this quote from Ottolenghi, admittedly talking about cauliflower cheese:
"People don't know how good cauliflower is, because they always have this image of cauliflower cheese - awful, sticky, creamy and rich." Yotam Ottolenghi
So he upped the game on cauliflower cheese itself - and I will come to that if I continue testing out cauliflower cheese. I haven't quite decided as yet. Like whether I shall do soup at all. If I do, however, I shall certainly take this piece of advice:
"When you cut your cauliflower into pieces, don't discard the core! The core is just as delicious as the florets themselves and since we're pureeing this soup, no one will even know they're there." Simply Recipes
POSTSCRIPT
October 11
2023 - Nothing
2020 - Frying with just air?
2019 - Nothing
2017 - Nothing
What is Welsh Raebit.. A mistype for Weslsh Rabit? and I must admit I agree with Ottolengi's comment on Cauliflowe and Cream ... seems at first sight to be but probably isn't awful, sticky, creamy and rich.
Ah Welsh that and Cheese Souffle. Favouites of mine…