I have never been a huge soup person, but sometimes I really fancy it, I think its one of those foods I have to be in the mood for. I was asked if I wanted to try out cuisinarts soup maker plus and I decided to give it a go, because Idea that one machine was able to sauté, cook, simmer and stir and even puree the soup in one pot amazed me. plus it meant less dishes which I’m always happy about. I read a bit about it before I said yes and saw it could be used for cooking jam and making risotto too so I had to see this for my self. I asked my partner what flavour soup he fancied from a list of ideas I had gathered and he said he liked the idea of this one that I saw on the Waitrose website. I adapted it a bit and used bone broth rather than vegetable stock, but if you want to make it vegetarian then feel free to use vegetable stock instead. I glazed the walnuts with honey rather than roasting them with sugar. I can really see why this time of the year is often referred to as soup season as on a day like today when its cold and dark I cant think of anything better. last weekend my partner and I visited my favourite farm shop to get the ingredients for this, I beg him to take me there all the time, but he always moans as its about a half an hour drive. he doesn’t understand and asks why I cant just go to the shop down the road to get my ingredients, but I am always like “the veg down the road doesn’t have leaves on” and I like it for prop purposes lol, I’m sure you other food bloggers know what I mean farm shop fruit and veg is just a nicer the looks natural where as the super market stuff is just not the same. in the town just down the road from the farm shop there is a huge antique warehouse and said it would be silly to come all this way and not go, (wink wink) and that’s where I found this glass carrier and chopping board. I think its safe to say I have a bit of a prop hording problem, I have sooo many photo props that my dining room looks like a shop, I really need to sort through it, but I go in and look at it and then instantly walk straight back out again as I don’t know where to start.
Preparation time: 15 minutes to 20 minutes
- Cooking time: 25 minutes
- Serves: 4
Ingredients
25g butter
2 brown onions, diced
1 stick celery, finely chopped
2 Conference pears, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1 cauliflower, broken into florets (about 500g)
1 litre vegetable stock or chicken stock (I used chicken bone broth from borough broth co)
100ml single cream
100g British blue cheese, roughly chopped (plus extra for garnish)
3 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus extra for garnish
For the walnuts
½ tsp sea salt
3 tbsp. honey
50g Walnuts, roughly chopped
Method
1 in a pan add the honey and salt and heat until it starts to bubble, being careful not to burn it toss in the walnuts and stir to coat then tip out onto some baking paper to cool, spread the nuts out using a fork.
2 For the soup, melt the butter in a large saucepan (or in a soup make like I did) . Add the onions and celery and cook for 5 minutes until starting to soften. Stir in the pears and cauliflower, toss together well then pour over the stock. Simmer for 15–20 minutes until the cauliflower is tender.
3 Stir in the cream, most of the blue cheese (reserve a little for garnish) and parsley. Simmer for 5 minutes then remove from the heat. Blend the mixture until smooth.
4 Ladle the soup into serving bowls or glasses and sprinkle with the walnuts, reserved blue cheese, extra parsley and a little ground black pepper. serve with crusty bread.
Love!!! I’m a huge soup fan, and I love your recipe Aimee! Nothing better than warm giant (I don’t do small 😉 ) bowl of soup! And I’m sooooo with you on farm shops! My other half is exact same, trying to understand why I would go on an hour long trip just to get some carrots or parsnips, or why am I keep bringing all this ‘weird’ stuff into the house (props) and that soon we will run out of the space in the house…bla…bla.. 😉 I think he made his peace with it by now, as he didn’t say a thing last weekend when I have rocked in to the house with two giant baskets of pumpkins! 😀 x
I love your photography! I always make the same old soups.I should branch out more & make something interesting like this recipe! Found you on A Morning Cup of Joe 🙂
thank you so much x