As the weather gets colder and the nights get darker, I am making lots of soups. They are so quick to make and so comforting. This recipe evolved from one for Curried Cauliflower Soup in Vegetarian Times. I made it a week or so ago when I hadn’t gone to the supermarket and was inspired by what was left in the fridge.
I also added peanuts as they seem to be flavour of the month – somehow I have ended up with peanut butter, chopped peanuts and whole peanuts in my pantry at the moment. This would not surprise some. I never thought of myself as a peanut butter lover until a primary school friend told me later in life that they always made sure they had peanut butter when I was coming to visit. Peanuts are a plain jane nut in my book - not terribly exciting because they were always on hand when I was a child unlike a lot of the nuts I cook with these days. But they add a comforting richness to this soup.
We ate this soup for dinner with pasties my mum had made which were meltingly delicious. E gave the soup the thumbs up. I was only sorry that our meagre rations meant there were no leftovers for the next night.Curried Cauliflower, Spinach and Peanut Soup
(Adapted from Vegetarian Times Jan 2009)
Serves 2
1 tsp canola oil
½ onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic flakes
½ cauliflower, chopped
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 heaped tsp curry powder (I used Keens)
1 pinch cinnamon
2 cups water
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp finely chopped peanuts
75g baby spinach
Extra chopped peanuts to serve
Fry onion in oil in a large saucepan for 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add garlic, cauliflower, apple, curry powder, cinnamon, water, stock powder, peanut butter and peanuts. Bring to the boil and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add spinach. Blend with hand held blender and serve warm with chopped peanuts as a garnish.
On the stereo:
Reprise: 1990-1999 - Vangelis
Johanna, you're a saviour - I have a ton of cauliflower and greens in the fridge and was despairing of what to do with them! I'm not a fan of peanuts in any form, but will report back how this turns out with them left out!
ReplyDeleteSpring is slow in coming here, so I'm still making lots of warming soups. This sounds wonderful and nourishing!
ReplyDeleteSounds wonderful--and such a lovely color! Reading through your post, I immediately was struck with how comfortable you are with peanuts--they are a three-alarm food over here, with so many children allergic to them. Is that not the case in Australia?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful bowlful of green!
ReplyDeleteI used to loathe peanuts, but you know, something has changed of late, and I seem to quite like a little palmful for snacking.
Your mum's pasties ROCK, Johanna! Goodness. Look at that scrumptious pastry.
Thanks Lysy - this soup would be great without peanuts too - after all the VT version didn't have peanuts - I just wanted a bit of extra protein
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa - we have the opposit - it has been warm here this week but cooling down again by the weekend (yay more soups!)
Thanks Ricki - yes we have the same problem with peanut allergies here - you can't take food with nuts in it to a lot of children's schools and events - which is why I make an effort to have some nut-free foods but I do love my nuts and am particularly aware of needing protein at the moment so probably eating them a bit more
Thanks Lucy - yes yes yes - loved the colour of the soup, and my mum uses Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry recipe which is indeed amazing
I made this soup from Vegetarian Times too (though I made it as written) and wasn't a big fan of it. Your spinach/peanut modification sounds like a great improvement on it though!
ReplyDeleteWell, you've inspired me to turn the rest of my leftover cauliflower into soup. If I end up making something worth eating I'll blog the result :)
ReplyDelete