Occasionally I will make a soup following the recipe very closely, or more correctly, I should say that I rarely follow a recipe closely. Reading through recipes gives inspiration. I’m sure you know what I mean.
This inspiration comes from a recipe developed for a restaurant. Interesting story! You can read the story and see the original recipe in all its glory. The recipe developers would look at the recipe below, recognize the similarity, and then shake their head in amusement.
Here’s our story:
One evening Frederick pointed out that we had not cooked together in a while. He had a brief lull in his busy schedule of practices and performances and chess tournaments. “So, let’s cook!”
Oh, the life of an 11-year-old!
I like to plan our cooking adventures in such a way that Frederick is continually learning new cooking skills. It’s not about teaching him a recipe. It’s about equipping him for a lifetime of good cooking experiences.
So what would tomorrow’s lesson be?
Scanning some on-line bookmarked recipes, I was drawn to the cauliflower soup and inspiration hit. This lesson would be about:
Be Spontaneous: I had come home that day with two head of cauliflower for $1 a piece. I had no particular plans for the cauliflower, but the price was too good to pass up. We had also had a roast chicken for dinner which meant there would be excellent chicken broth ready by the next day.
Waste Nothing: The chicken was stuffed with quarters of a large orange bell pepper and about a dozen cloves of garlic. Along with a quartered lemon and some herbs, these veggies flavored the chicken beautifully, but had not been put to use for dinner. They ended up minced and added to the soup. This additional flavor was lush and Frederick got his first lesson in mincing, using a large chef’s knife. The already-cooked vegetables made for a good first lesson. I should have gotten some pictures. Frederick looked so proud!
So here’s our soup. You can do it our way or follow the original (here). I’m sure the other guy’s soup is also wonderful.
Here are a couple of garnishes we used that finish the plating but also add flavor:
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A cauliflower frittata with some serious “wow” factors
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A new way to enjoy roasted cauliflower
A bright cauliflower salad for winter and spring