Comforting Cauliflower Soup

For forever, I’ve had the Pioneer Woman’s Cauliflower Soup bookmarked. It just looks amazing, doesn’t it? My friend Meagan has made it and has confirmed its amazingness. But I never made it. Don’t ask me why. And now I wouldn’t want to make it as-is because it has flour in it.

So I made my own inspired-by-Ree Cauliflower Soup. And I’ll be making it again, for sure. It’s GOOD.

Comforting Cauliflower Soup

You’ll need:

• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• celery if you want, but I didn’t have any
• 2 heads cauliflower, chopped
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup whole milk
• the other 1/2 stick butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• garlic salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Melt half a stick of butter in a big soup pot.
2. Dump in the onions, and cook them for a while.
3. Add the carrots and cauliflower. Stir around, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes. You don’t need to add water or anything — there is enough moisture in the pot to steam them; just trust me.
4. After your veggies are all cooked, dump in enough chicken stock to cover the veggies. For me that was about a quart of good, rich, homemade chicken stock. mmm. Bring to a simmer.
5. Pour in a cup of milk. I don’t care if you measure. I do care if you use whole milk. It must be whole milk. Fat is good.
6. Now, because we’re not thickening with flour, here’s what I want you to do. Ladle 1-2 cups of the chunky soup into a separate container, and add the other half stick of butter.  Use your immersion blender (click to see the one I use and LOVE) to blend it into a heavenly puree.
7. Dump the puree back into the pot of soup, and stir to combine.
8. Pour in a good splash of heavy cream.
9. Season with garlic salt and black pepper. I’m not usually a pepper girl, but black pepper just BELONGS in this soup. Do it.
10. To serve, put a dollop of sour cream in each bowl, then ladle soup over it. Extra creaminess, and it helps to cool the soup so you won’t burn your mouth ad haff do dak like dis.

This makes about 6 generous servings. But of course, it’ll depend on how big your cauliflowers were, and how much stock you needed in order to cover them up.