Cauliflower Cheese Soup

We’re going out for dinner this evening but won’t be eating until quite late so soup for lunch seemed like a good idea, as well as keeping us full all afternoon, it was also a chance for me to redeem myself after Tuesday’s soup failure (gritty lentils and too much cream meant the whole lot went into the bin).

A friend recently made this Nigel Slater dish and said it was lovely; not wanting to risk another disaster, I stuck faithfully to the recipe and it worked out reasonably well although I think I probably used too much water as the whole thing was a bit dilute and was better after some reducing.  I think I might actually prefer it without the mustard too -  we have a particularly vinegary wholegrain at the moment which was a little too much against the sweetness of the cauliflower.

So, a better attempt than last time but still not perfect.  I foresee a lot of soup in coming weeks until I get this right.

50 g butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 large or 2 small cauliflower, broken into florets
2 bay leaves
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
4 tablespoons creme fraiche
1 heaped tablespoon seed mustard
200 g punchy farmhouse cheddar, grated
2 thick slices of bread, cut into 1 cm cubes
50 g butter

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion and fry until soft, then add the garlic and fry another minute. Meanwhile, boil the cauliflower florets for six to eight minutes, until almost tender. Add the cauliflower and its cooking water to the onion, along with the bay leaves and potato. Bring to the boil and add salt. Simmer for fifteen minutes.

Remove from the heat, fish out the bay leaves and puree the soup. Pour back into the pan. Stir in the creme fraiche, mustard and a grinding of black pepper. Bring back to the boil. Fry the bread cubes in the butter until golden.

Ladle the soup into deep warm bowls, stir in the cheese, taste – add salt, pepper or mustard as you wish – and scatter with croutons.