Cauliflower & Butter Bean Soup
I've decided to post an update to a recipe I came up with almost exactly one year ago. You may recall a couple of months ago I said I was stopping my organic box delivery from Beanies. Well, I changed my mind; in the end I decided to just reduce the amount I had delivered, and that is working out really well. They did however send me another cauliflower last week, but thanks to all the experimenting with the stuff last year and all the cooking practise I've had over the last twelve months, I'm quite happy to find one on my door step these days.Here's the refined recipe (quite a few servings from this):
Ingredients:
2 tbsp Olive Oil
25g butter
2 banana shallots
150ml white wine
1 Cauliflower
2 pints vegetable stock (preferably home made, or bought fresh)
600g butter beans (one and a half cans)
200ml double cream
Method
Thinly chop the shallots.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot on a medium heat.
Add the butter.
When the butter has fizzed its last, add the shallots.
Constantly stir the shallots until very soft, 4-5 minutes.
Add the wine, and reduce.
Add the cauliflower, and stir to coat well with the existing ingredients.
Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the butter beans and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes.
Transfer to food processor and blend until very smooth.
Transfer back to pot over medium heat and stir in the cream, then season to taste.
Serve with chunky croutons.
For the croutons:
Ingredients
2 slices of thick bread - I used the crusts of Warburtons Seeded Batch.
t tbsp olive oil
1 knob of butter
1 tsp thinly chopped thyme
Method
Heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Cut the bread up in thick chunks.
Heat the oil in a sauté pan over a medium heat.
Add the butter.
Add the bread, reduce to a low heat and coat the chunks in the oil/butter.
Sprinkle on the thyme and fry gently for 3-4 minutes.
Transfer to a baking tray and bake until crisp throughout. I can't remember how long this took, probably around 15 minutes. You could just fry them of course, but I figured that baking them meant I didn't have to tend the frying pan for ages. You could even be all healthy and not fry at all, and just bake, but I've never tried that method.
