Curried cauliflower soup and memories from trips

Something that always brings me good memories from my travels is the food: I miss certain dishes and wines from places I have been. This longing is now even bigger, since no one knows when travelling will go back to what it used to be. It pains me to imagine how many restaurants have closed their doors due to the pandemic, so many people unemployed because of that. It is really sad. 

I visited Buenos Aires in 2016 and had a lovely curried cauliflower soup in a restaurant called Restó: delicious, the soup was served in a small cup and came with a crayfish floating on it - it was a dinner with several different courses and the portions were small. When I came back from Argentina, I still had thoughts of writing a cookbook and wanted to include this soup in it.

My version is creamier than the one I had in Buenos Aires and vegetarian – no crayfish here, and you can even turn it vegan by replacing the butter with more olive oil. I just find butter and leeks are a match made in heaven, so I usually add a bit of butter when cooking leeks.

I must confess Restó’s soup was tastier than mine, but my version still brings me nice memories from such a wonderful trip.

 

Curried cauliflower soup

own recipe

 

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large leek, light part only, thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 cauliflower, about 500g, cut into small florets (to cook faster)

500ml vegetable stock, hot

300ml boiling water

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon ground cumin

salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large saucepan, melt butter in medium-high heat. Add the olive oil. Add the leek and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute only – do not let the garlic burn or it will turn bitter. Add the potato, carrot and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring now and then.

Add the cauliflower, the stock, water, bay leaf and spices. Season with salt and black pepper, mix well and as soon as it starts to boil turn the heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Remove the bay leaf from the soup, blitz with a handheld mixer until smooth and serve.

Serves 4 – or 2 very generous servings