Throwdown Dos

Ok, after our first resounding success with the Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos, which I received an encore of praise for last night while we reminisced on them during the SuperBowl, it is Chopper's recipe pick. And his choice?

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

I do admit I give Chopper mad props for actually having searched through cookbooks for a recipe (I feel like cook book recipes just have an added legitimacy that websites don't), but I will certainly be tweaking the recipe. Here is my plan:

Cauliflower Cheese Soup, a la Sydney

Ingredients

2 large potatoes, diced (though not peeled)

2 cauliflower, cut or broken in florets (reserve 4 cups of florets)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 small onions

1/2 package of bacon, diced

3 tsp salt

8 cups of vegetable broth

3 cups of a grated cheddar cheese (white and orange)

1 1/2 cups of milk

2 tsp of dill

1 tsp of caraway seed

Directions

1. Fry bacon in the bottom of a large pot. Remove bacon, and soften dice onion in the reserved liquid.

2. Add potato, cauliflower (except reserved florets) carrot, salt and broth and bring to a boil, simmering until all vegetables are tender. Wait to cool, and puree in a blender (the recipe doesn't specify to wait for cooling but this is so crucial if you want to avoid a huge mess/scalding yourself). Add to pot.

3) Add remaining ingredients, giving the florets a 20 minute head start to soften up (don't forget that bacon). Stir.

Chopper's already made this (on Saturday, which I think could be almost cheating...he must have already had the ingredients at the ready...), but I wont press him for a full review until I finish it. Tomorrow night I think. My big changes were, for one, to double the recipe - who doesn't love having a big pot of soup leftovers? Chopper said his recipe was enough for he and Jimmy to have one very large dinner, and that just wont do. I also thought that adding bacon would give a nice smokey flavour, and would allow me to cut down a bit on the cheese, which is also the logic behind caramelizing the onions first. I also figured I would substitute veggie broth for water - looking at this recipe, I can't help but wonder where the flavour is supposed to come from!

I'll let you know how it goes!