Time for some more healing soups. This week I cheated and had a ton of things I shouldn’t be eating right now. Clearly my taste buds are bored so it’s back to the drawing board. I spent some time reading up online on veggie based soups, found some good starting points (particularly this site), and I came up with two I will eat this week.
So, a couple things. First, I love raw and cooked cauliflower, but we mostly eat it raw. When I was prepping the cauliflower my kids paraded through the kitchen exclaiming loudly about the stink. Cooked cauliflower is really so tasty, it has no business smelling so strange. Second, I love cardamom and the second recipe has cardamom in it. I have never had cardamom in a savory soup, that I was aware of at least. And who doesn’t find every possible excuse to use cardamom? I mean, really.
Cauliflower Cream Soup
Based on this.
- cauliflower head
- 1 onion
- 4 cups stock, I used chicken
- salt and pepper
- 1 can coconut milk
Instructions:
Cut leaves off cauliflower, break into pieces, and throw into the a soup pot. Cut onion into small pieces. It doesn’t need to pretty as you’ll be pureeing it. Add stock and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to boil. Cook 15 minutes or until soft. Add coconut milk, puree, and voila, delish.
Red Lentil and Shiitake Soup
- red lentils
- a couple heaping handfuls of shiitake mushrooms (if using dry mushrooms, soak them for 30 minutes before tossing in the soup pot
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups water
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves (at least)
- a nice big chunk of fresh ginger
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp basil
Instructions:
Into your soup goes all the things including all the spices. Feel free to adjust the spices. Bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer until lentils are soft, about 20 minutes or so.
Serve it up.
Karen Alma 
I learned from a brother-in-law the trick of putting cauliflower in to boil with the potatoes when you make mashed potatoes. You just mash it all up together. With some butter and/or parmesan cheese mixed in, it comes out very kid-friendly.
Oh! I have done cauliflower mashed and crumbled (sort of rice-like) but the kids seem to think that’s strange. I’ll try mixing it with potatoes, that’s a good idea!