Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Wild Rice, Kale and Turmeric
While the cauliflower is roasting prepare/chop the rest of the veggies. Sauté the chopped veggies, add the roasted cauliflower and broth, blend, add spices and wild rice. Cook about an hour, add the kale. You have soup and/or tortilla filling for days.
Ingredients
- 1 small head cauliflower outer leaves and stem removed, cut into similarly-sized flowerettes
- 1 small leek white part only, thinly sliced
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 small onion red is fine
- 1 - 2 tsp Kosher salt divided for the soup and to sprinkle on the cauliflower when roasting it
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1/4 c dry cooking sherry
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper more or less to taste
- 2 - 3 handfuls kale stems removed and roughly chopped
- 4 + T olive oil to coat the cauliflower for roasting and to sauté the veggies in
Instructions
Roast the Cauliflower
- Preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove outer leaves from cauliflower and cut out the inner stem. Chop the cauliflower into similarly-sized flowerettes. Coat the cauliflower with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt. It's easier to do this in a bowl, but just slopping it around on the baking sheet works too.
- Roast the cauliflower about 20 - 25 minutes until you can smell it and the flowerettes have a little golden brown around the edges. Turn them over at the halfway mark to get all the edges browned if you have OCD.
The Other Veggies
- While the cauliflower is roasting, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Cut the leek in half where it starts to turn green. Discard the green part. Slice the white part of the leek lengthwise and inspect the layers for dirt. Rinse it in cold water if needed. Thinly slice (1/4th inch) the leek halves across the layers into "half-discs."
- Roughly slice the celery sticks, roughly chop the onion, and smash/mince the 2 garlic cloves.
- Roughly chop 2 - 3 handfuls of kale and pick the leaves off any big stems. Discard the stems. Set aside. The kale goes in during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- Set a medium-large soup pot over medium heat and heat for 3 - 5 minutes. Set your phone timer. Heating the pan before adding the oil and veggies is what gives the veggies a nice sear. Don't let the oil start to smoke - that's too hot.
- When the pan is hot, add the sliced leeks, chopped celery, chopped onion, and minced garlic. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp each, Kosher salt and pepper. Sauté 8 minutes until the veggies are translucent and just starting to get brown around the edges.
Build the Soup
- Add the roasted cauliflower and 4 cups vegetable broth. Break out your immersion blender and pureé until smooth.
- Add 1/4 cup dry sherry, 2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp coriander and 1/2 cup wild rice. Bring it just to a boil, then loosely cover the pot and simmer about 60 minutes, until the rice starts to pop open.
- When the rice is done, add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper and another 1/2 tsp Kosher salt. Add the chopped kale and simmer another 10 minutes until the kale is wilted/cooked.
- Serve with a salad and bread of choice.
Notes
This is a thick soup. You can adjust the consistency with more or less vegetable broth/water. Like many meals-in-a-pot, the flavor develops over time and it gets better and better.
Try smearing it on a tortilla with some cheddar or Mexican Oaxaca cheese (or both) and spicy salsa - makes a delightful fusion meal.