Fridge Cleaning : Part 1 – Mediterranean Spiced Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Mediterranean Spiced_Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Once again it is refrigerator and pantry cleaning days at the old homestead.  Charmed has a problem.  Remember kids, the first step is admitting you have a problem.   You see, Charmed likes to go to the grocery when hungry.  This means many items make it into the cart which, at the time of purchase were “Oh, I could use this for…” become at home,  “I’ve got WHAT in the fridge?”  The pantry, even worse.  SO… Charmed sometimes forces himself to break out of the rut of the usual good things to make, and come up with new and um… interesting recipes.

On the chopping block the other night was a big ‘ol head of cauliflower needing to be used before an untimely demise.  Also in need of use was about 1/2 a carton of plain yogurt.

I’ve never associated cauliflower with Indian cooking, but I’ve now seen quite a few recipes.  Most seem to involve marinating or stir-frying the cauliflower with onion and Indian spices.  The spice mix, usually involves turmeric.  You know the spice that turns everything yellow.   Turmeric is pretty heavy handed, a little bit goes a long way.  The sauce used for the Indian recipe sometimes uses yogurt.  So here we have my basic inspiration for how to use my aging produce.  The problem is, I’m just not too much of a fan of turmeric, so I adapted it to use another spice mix.

I have many spice mixes sitting in the spice cabinet’s apothecary jars.  In this case, I grabbed two jars, one a mix of coriander, cumin, mustard, black pepper, fenugreek (methi).  This has a sweet note from the fenugreek and is my “Indian inspired” spice.  The other a mix of coriander, cumin, mustard, black pepper, and fennel seed.  This is my “Greek inspired” spice mix.

Since I was thinking “Greek” and yogurt, it set me up to make my simulated “greek yogurt”.   Greek yogurt is much thicker and has a much higher fat content.  In most cases, I can’t get “Greek yogurt” so instead, I take readily available “plain yogurt” and let it strain through a fine sieve or cheese cloth over a  bowl for a number of hours in the fridge.  This thickens the yogurt into a soft-cheese consistency.

So here’s what was on the menu the other night.

Mediterranean spiced Creamy Cauliflower Soup

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1 head Cauliflower cut into florets

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 med. size onion

2 cloves garlic

Salt (to taste)

White pepper (to taste)

3 tbsp.  Spice mix – 2 parts “Greek inspired” mix and 1 part “Indian inspired” mix

2 cups chicken stock

1.5 cups Yogurt (drained for at least 4 hours)

In a medium sized pot, boil cauliflower florets in water with mildly salted water.  Cook until cauliflower is very tender, approximately 30 min.  Drain florets and set aside.

In medium sized pot, melt butter over medium heat and add olive oil.  Add onions and garlic and cook on low to medium until softened.  Season to taste with salt and white pepper.  Raise heat to medium high and add cauliflower.  Add spice mixture.  Stir to coat cauliflower, and allow to cook 1 – 2 min.  Using a spatula, mash cauliflower.  Add chicken stock and stir to incorporate.   Allow soup to come to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and use a stick blender or table-top blender and reduce to puree consistency.  Return to stove and heat soup on medium until hot, but not boiling.

Remove from heat and add yogurt.  Stir to incorporate yogurt.

Plate into individual bowls and garnish.

Garnish options

I garnised the soup with a few slices of grilled chicken breast using the same spice mixture and a drizzle of olive oil.