Dave Lieberman's Cauliflower Soup

Made this a week or two ago. A very simple dinner, with good fresh bread, delicious. Consider adding a bit of fresh cream for extra richness, but perfectly good as-is.

Cauliflower Soup and Parmesan Crisps

Courtesy of Dave Lieberman and Food Network

Ingredients

Soup:

1 head cauliflower

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart low-sodium chicken stock

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Crisps:

1 cup shredded Parmesan

Chopped chives, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the leaves and thick core from the cauliflower, coarsely chop, and reserve. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook until softened, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the cauliflower and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the cauliflower is very soft and falling apart, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and, using a hand held immersion blender, puree the soup, or puree in small batches in a blender and return it to the pot. Add the Parmesan and stir until smooth. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Meanwhile, make the Parmesan crisps:

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread the shredded cheese over the foil in 1 even thin layer. Bake about 10 minutes until golden brown and crisps. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Break sheet of crisp cheese into large pieces and garnish each soup bowl with a couple shards and a pinch of fresh chives.

Kale and Bread Soup

I bought some kale a week ago, and I wanted to make a hearty and delicious soup, and use up a bunch of leftover bread. I made the garlic confit the night before, and it will last probably a week or more in the fridge, and is great just spread on bread, or mixed in with potatoes or other dishes.


Kale and Bread Soup

1/4 cup Garlic Confit (recipe follows)
2 tbsp oil from Garlic Confit (recipe follows)
2 tbsp caramelized onions*
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 bunch kale, rinsed well and julienned
1 cup stale bread, cut into 1/2" cubes
3 cups chicken stock
Black pepper and salt to taste.

1. In a large pot, add oil, red pepper flakes, onions, over medium heat for 20 seconds.
   
2. Mash garlic confit, and add, cooking 10 seconds.
   
3. Add kale, and toss to coat, cooking for 2 minutes. Season with black pepper.
   
4. Add bread, and cook for 30 seconds.
   
5. Add chicken stock, turn heat to high, and bring to a boil for 2 minutes.
   
6. Remove from heat
7. Serve immediately.
   

I had these as a leftover. Made a huge batch, with a lot of butter and some brandy. Froze it, and I use it for flavoring as needed.

Garlic Confit

1 entire head elephant garlic (or 2 large heads garlic), peeled
50-50 olive oil and canola oil to cover

1. Put peeled heads in small ovenproof saucepan. Add oils to cover garlic cloves completely
2. Roast at 300 degrees for 1.5 hours.
3. Let cool, cover and refrigerate. K
4. To use, remove as needed with a clean fork. Use as a spread or mash.

Roasted beetroot soup

I was at St. John's Bread and Wine a few weeks ago while on a trip to England and France, and B. and I had an amazing dinner. One of the specials that night was a beetroot soup, which arrived in a pretty little crock with pickled beets on top, as sweet/sour and interesting as pickled ginger! The beet soup was really a smooth, creamy, dark red puree, well-salted and well-buttered. I really liked the simplicity of flavors, so I tried to replicate it myself, and got pretty close.

So the version listed here is based on the lessons learned from the one I made tonight, which still had a slightly bitter edge (probably due to slight undercooking of beets). I also used a roasted veg puree that I had leftover from a roast chicken I made recently, so this version incorporates the roasting in with the beets. The whole idea here is to roast small beets (which are usually sweetish already) to further enhance their natural sweetness thru caramelization.

Roasted Beetroot soup

10 small beets, any color (but preferably with some red ones in there!), scrubbed, tips and tops cut off
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 large onion, rough chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
Kosher Salt
4-6 cups stock (or 4 cups stock + water)
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp honey (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Cut largish beets into even sized pieces
3. On a sheet pan, toss beets, carrots, celery, and onion in olive oil. Season with salt.
   
4. Roast at 450 for 40 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes.
   
5. Meanwhile, in a medium pot, heat stock to just boil and remove from heat.
   
6. Remove roasted veg from oven, and peel beets (they should peel easily and be nicely caramelized on a few sides)
   
7. To 4 cups of hot stock, add roasted veg, 2 bay leaves and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Beets should be nice and soft, easily pierced with fork, like a potato.
   
8. Remove bay leaves, and in batches, put beet soup in blender and blend until smooth (be careful! cover the top of the blender firmly with a towel to keep soup from exploding everywhere, and pulse the blender to get it going!!)
   
9. Strain hot soup thru a chinois to ensure smooth texture.
10. Add additional hot stock or water to achieve desired consistency (should not be as thick as baby food, leave it slightly more watery). Heat over low heat as necessary.
    
11. Remove from heat, and whisk in 3 tbsp butter.
12. Adjust salt to taste. If soup is a bit bitter, add optional honey to balance bitterness.
13. Serve hot with crusty buttered bread. You can also garnish with heavy cream or sour cream.
    

butternut squash soup 2010

One of my favorite squash soups to date. The roasting brings out a real delicious sweetness and toastiness from squash. I had some leftover ruby port, and that added a really nice depth of flavor. Be careful on the white pepper and cayenne, the flavors are so delicate and sweet that it's easy to make this way too spicy.

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
2 tbsp + 2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery and leaves, chopped
1/2 cup ruby port
1/4 cup apple pie liqueur
1 box chicken stock
pinch allspice
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
tiny pinch cayenne
Salt and white pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450F
2. On baking sheet, toss butternut cubes with olive oil, salt + white pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, flipping cubes at 20 minutes.
   
3. Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a large cast iron pot.
4. Sweat onions + celery for about 5 minutes over medium heat (do not brown!). Add, shut off heat, stir in spices.
   
5. Add butternut squash pieces to pot, along with enough chicken stock to cover.
   
6. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, covered for 15 minutes.
   
7. Blend in batches in blender (don't fill blender more than 1/2 way full, and cover top with towel!).
   
8. Add back to pot. Add enough remaining chicken stock to make it quite liquid, and use some water if you need to (you don't want this thick, you want it to be pretty runny, just a little thicker than chicken soup!). Heat until warm over low heat.
   
9. Season with additional salt and white pepper to taste.
   
10. Stir in 1 tbsp. of butter if you're feeling like it should be more creamy.
    

Variations:

• Add 1 diced, peeled green apple to onions when sweating

Mushroom Bacon soup

2 weeks ago, the local supermarket had a special: button mushrooms for $0.50 per package! Unheard of! The reason was the "sell by" date was the following day. So I brought them home that day and cooked them up. I like them as a spread on grandma's bread, in omelettes, etc. They had been sitting in the fridge for a few days, so I thought I would try something new. Well, it turned out pretty well. I made it without the cream, but it would be nice for some added richness.

Mushroom Bacon Soup

Serves 2

1 medium onion, diced
2-3 strips bacon
1 container button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shot (1.5 oz) brandy
2 tbsp butter
2 sprigs fresh thyme, stems removed
1 + 1 cup (2 c. total) homemade chicken stock (or good-quality boxed chicken stock)
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat chicken stock in a small pot to a boil; reduce heat to low.
2. In a skillet, cook bacon, draining on towels. Pour off all bacon fat from pan. Over high heat, add 2 tbsp butter. Add onions, and cook til translucent, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add a shot (1.5 oz) of brandy. Flame off (if desired) or cook til evaporates, about 2 minutes. Reemove from heat.
4. Reserve about 2 tbsp mushroom/bacon mixture for garnish.
5. Add remaining mixture to blender. Add about 1 cup stock, puree mushrooms. Adjust mixture with remaining (or more) stock if needed, so it's more like soup (a bit runny) and NOT like baby food (or applesauce).
6. Return to pot over medium heat to keep warm. Add cream if desired, and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve in bowls, garnished with reserved mushroom/bacon mixture and a sprinkle of thyme.

wonton soup revisited

Made wonton soup last night, as I felt a bit of post-nasal drip, and was tired and sluggish. Well, seems to have worked. Wonton soup is easy, esp. if you have made/purchased frozen wontons in advance. I especially liked this week's version, and I just got to eat some leftovers for lunch. Buillion cubes were a short-cut; you can certainly use chicken stock instead, but you may need to adjust the salt.

Wonton Soup Revisited
Serves 4

1 box low sodium chicken stock
2 cups + 1 cup water
2 chicken buillion cubes (I use Knorr)
3 scallions: green parts cut into 1" nuggets, white parts finely chopped
1.5 tbsp. garlic, minced
2-3 ginger "coins", smashed with flat side of knife
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 cups broccoli rabe leaves, washed and cut across the leaf into 1" strips
2 slices ham, cut into 1/4" ribbons
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil (optional); I prefer Spectrum Organics to Kadoya
12-16 frozen won-tons

1. In a large pot, add chicken stock, and 2 cups water.
2. Bring to a boil, and add buillion cubes, scallions, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes, and boil for about 2 minutes, until buillon cubes dissolve.
3. Add broccoli leaves and ham, and boil for 1 minute.
4. Add frozen wontons all at once + 1/2 cup water + soy sauce.
5. Over high heat, bring soup back up to a boil, stirring once or twice, then add remaining 1/2 cup water, remove from heat, and cover.
6. Let sit covered off of the heat for 10 minutes, when wontons will be fully cooked.
7. Season with additional soy sauce, salt and pepper as desired.