Wednesday Wind Down: Cauliflower Cheese Soup

I arrived home at 10pm after a 13-hour working day last night. All I’d eaten was a sandwich at lunchtime. I was soaked from the rain, cold, starving and exhausted, but didn’t have a ready meal to put in the oven.

Once again, this cauliflower cheese soup, adapted from the Avoca Soups book, came to my rescue. It didn’t require much work: I turned on to the TV and sat there blankly, occasionally popping up to stir it.

Now, I don’t much care for cauliflower. It looks like a preserved pigs brain. Put it in a soup, however, and you wouldn’t know it. This was great comfort food. I didn’t have the energy to make a sandwich so I had it with some buttered brown sliced pan. I instantly felt myself stir back to life – the perfect end to a miserable day.

The cream and chives are recommended, but you’ll get away without them. Finely chopped parsley would work in place of chives.

This will serve four; enough left over for lunches today. Adjust ingredients accordingly. If you need to make the soup last even longer, or only want it as a snack or light meal, serve it in a mug instead of a bowl.

If I’d had ham and tomato, I would have put them in a sandwich with freshly ground black pepper.

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower, broken into small florets
• 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• Half a block of grated cheddar cheese
• 300ml full-fat milk
• A splash of cream (or, even better, double cream)
• 1.2 litres vegetable stock
• Fresh chopped chives
• Butter

Instructions

• Moan about having to make dinner when you’re knackered
• Turn on the TV
• Saute the onion and potato in butter on a low heat, in a pot, for about 10 mins, until soft. Get up from the TV every now and then to stir them.
• Throw the cauliflower and stock into the pot
• Bring to the boil, reduce heat, return to the TV
• Allow simmer for 15 mins, drag yourself off the couch, blend the soup
• Stir in the cheese, chives, and milk, stir well
• Lastly, put in a bowl and stir in the cream, if you have it
• Eat. Feel better
• Sleep for 1000 years