East Indian Cauliflower Soup, Gobi Ka Shorva

Cauliflower is just beginning to arrive in our farmer’s market. For this recipe, you can use either white or yellow cauliflower, but the purple will be a strange color when mixed with the colorful turmeric spice. This is a deeply satisfying vegetable soup, which I found in a little Indian book about spices by the Indian food expert, Madhur Jaffrey. I used my food processor, with the plunger off, to pureed the soup before adding the cream. (I asked Santa for a hand held immersion blender so that my creamed soup making will be less messy going forward.) This soup is especially beautiful and delicious with the cilantro mint chutney swirled in as a garnish but equally delicious without it. If you want to increase the heat/spice, you can add Rooster Sauce, Sriracha hot chili sauce.

Cauliflower Soup with Coriander

Gobi Ka Shorva

From Madhur Jaffrey’s Spice Kitchen

This soup maybe made ahead and reheated but do so over low heat. If you boil the soup after adding the cream it will curdle.

INGREDIENTS

to serve 4-6

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 med onions peeled and chopped

1” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine slivers

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp turmeric

1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

½ lb potatoes (2 med) peeled, and cut into ½ inch dice

½ lb ( 2 heaping cups) cauliflower flowerets

7 cups (1 qt+3 cups) chicken broth

salt to taste

1 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oil over fairly high heat in a large stock pot. When hot, put in the onions, ginger and garlic. Stir fry for about 4 minutes or until the onions are soft and starting to brown.
2. Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne. Stir once and add the potatoes, cauliflower and chicken stock.
3. Stir and bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Put batches of the soup in the blender. Do not over fill the blender, (only fill to 1/3) because the top will pop off due to the heat of the soup.

Return the soup to the stock pot and add the cream. Reheat gently.

Serve with Cilantro Mint Chutney see recipe below, stir a spoonful of chutney into soup right before serving, or with chopped fresh cilantro on top. Makes ½ cup.

1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves

½ cup packed fresh mint leaves

2 Tbsp minced onion

a pinch of salt

¾ tsp sugar

1 ½ tsp fresh lime juice

3 Tbsp plain yogurt

Process all the ingredients in a blender or food processor, until smooth. Scrap down the sides halfway. Can be refrigerated for a day.