Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Almonds

Cauliflowers – remember the days when it was overcooked by our Mothers, and a watery mush was slopped onto our plates? Eww! Or a dish of cauliflower, overcooked again, covered with cheese and baked? Oh maybe not, you might not be old enough. But thank goodness, the understanding of cauliflower has come a long way since those days. The things we can now do with a cauli! Roast it, grill it, rice it, fry it, deep fry it, the variations are endless.

This is a simple but beautiful soup, the recipe was given to me by the multi-talented Ilva, food photographer and former food blogger. It is so simple and so good, in a gentle sort of way. I have added almonds to her recipe and some white pepper which I love with cauliflower.

Similar dishes include A Plate of Cauliflower, Cauliflower Walnut Cream Soup, and Cauliflower a la Grecque.

Browse our Cauliflower dishes and all of our delicious Soups. Or explore our Early Spring dishes.

Soupe au Celeri-Rave | Celeriac Soup with Cheese Croûtes

Celeriac undoubtedly makes one of the most superb Winter soups. In parts of France, such as the Savoie where cheese plays an important part in the cuisine, the soup is frequently topped with croûtes of toasted cheese.

Celeriac is that ugly looking bulb, hard to peel because of the lumps and bumps, but  makes the most smooth soups.

Croûtes are pieces or slices of bread which have been grilled with cheese on top. These are floated on top of the soup. These are optional, of course, but delicious. Make them thick or thin, use Gruyere, or Parmesan or whatever cheese you have at hand.

Similar recipes include Fava Bean Soup, French Pumpkin Soup, and Roasted Parsnip Soup.

Browse all of our Celeriac recipes and all of our Soup recipes. All of our French dishes are here. Or explore all of our Late Winter dishes.

Chickpea and Orzo Pasta Soup

Chickpeas combined with orzo (rice shaped pasta), other pasta or rice is quite common in Italy, Spain and Greece. The dishes are usually simply cooked, perhaps with one herb or spice addition. Garlic, saffron, rosemary and hot peppers are quite common choices.

Today we have a soup with chickpeas and orzo, flavoured with rosemary. It is a simple, rustic and delicate soup, meditative to eat and quiet in its flavour profile. But bang full of nutrition and so very enjoyable. It can be a meal in itself, perhaps with a green salad and crusty bread to follow.

Similar recipes include Chickpea and Carrot Salad, Falafel, and Rice and Orzo.

Browse all of our Orzo dishes, and all of our Pasta recipes. Our Chickpea dishes are here and Greek recipes here. Or browse our Early Spring collection of recipes.

South Indian Vegetable Soup

Another lovely South Indian soup from the Cook and See series of books. Vol 4 of these books is by Priya Ramkumar, Meenakshi Ammal’s granddaughter. It is simpler than the other volumes, introducing recipes of the early 2000’s  rather than the traditional fare of the 1950’s. I love the soups, as simple and easy as they are. Today’s is Vegetable Soup – vegetables are cooked till tender then coarsely mashed before being served with some cream swirled through.

Similar recipes include  Indo-Chinese Sweetcorn Soup,  Indian Potato and Tomato Soup, South Indian Carrot Soup, and South Indian Green Peas Soup.

Browse all of our Indian Soups and all Soup recipes. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Late Spring recipes.

Zuppa di Zucca | Italian Pumpkin Soup

Today’s recipe is another Pumpkin Soup. This one is Italian in origin, with  potatoes and cannellini beans. It is a beautiful and velvety soup.

Actually, I am famous amongst my friends and family  for Soupe au Potiron and it remains my favourite Pumpkin Soup! However, I also love a little variety. Make today’s recipe in very cold weather, and enjoy it with crisp crunchy bread! This recipe has been around in our Winter kitchen for many, many years, and the original inspiration came from the River Cafe Cookbook.

Similar recipes include Celeriac Soup with Cheese Croûtes, Soupe au Potiron, Pumpkin Soup with Red Peppers, and Adzuki Bean, Pumpkin and Barley Soup.

Browse all of our Pumpkin recipes, and our Soup recipes Our Italian recipes are here. Or check out our easy Mid Winter recipes.

This recipe is one of the vegetarian recipes from our first blog which was in existence from 1995 – 2006.  You can find other recipes from that blog in our Retro Recipes series.

Indian Vegetable Soup with Cumin

Gorgeous, hardly spiced, easy to make, delicious. I am not sure that I can say any more. It’s a great dish for Navarathri.

Similar dishes include South Indian Vegetable Soup, Indian Pumpkin Soup, South Indian Carrot Soup, and Simple Dal Soup.

Browse all of our Indian Soups and Soups in general. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Late Spring recipes.

Kohlrabi Creamy Soup

Kohlrabi is sort of surreal looking – a knobbly bulb with purple and green leaves sprouting from it. Actually a member of the cabbage family, the bulb is really a swollen stem. Kohlrabi is great eaten raw (shredded in salads), cooked, roasted or pureed. It has certainly gained in popularity recently. Here we puree it to form a creamy Wintery soup.

When you are buying kohlrabi, choose fresh looking bulbs as they have a sweet and delicate flavour. It needs good peeling, as it has a double skin. Try using a knife rather than a potato peeler.

Are you after more Kohlrabi recipes? Try Kohlrabi Subzi. And Kohlrabi can be used in place of Jicama in any of these recipes, especially Green Mango and Kohlrabi Salad, and Pickled Kohlrabi.

Or are you looking for similar soups. Try Celeriac Soup with Cheese Croûtes, French Carrot Soup, Fava Bean Soup with Turmeric and Herbs, and Cream of Pumpkin Soup.

All of our Kohlrabi recipes are here, or browse all of our Soup dishes. Explore our Mid Winter recipes for more inspiration.

Indian Potato and Tomato Soup

Potato soup is so good, don’t you agree? A winter staple, especially with leeks. Yet I always smile inside when I think about making it, or read about it, or someone mentions it. Potato can be so gluey when overworked – a horrid gluggy mess as the starch is overworked. One has to be careful.

Yet there is no denying the perfect nature of a good potato soup. You know, I have mentioned before, that Indian Soups are rare but not unknown. Indeed they are seemingly becoming more common, due to the increased exposure to Western and other cuisines no doubt.  Probably originally a response to British occupation, even Meekakshi Ammal mentions them. Madhur Jaffrey too.

This recipe is a riff on one of Ms Jaffrey’s. While I wince at the way she has tailored recipes to meet the availability of produce and the taste of the British, I have to admit that her dishes never disappoint. Not quite traditional Indian food, but close enough, and closer to British Indian, a cuisine in its own right.

Anyway, enjoy this soup – it is delicious.

Similar recipes include Indian Vegetable Soup with Cumin, Cream of Potato and Tomato Soup,  Indian Pumpkin Soup, and South Indian Tomato and Potato Soup.

Browse all of our Indian Soups and all Potato recipes. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Late Spring recipes.

Turkish Spinach Soup with Chickpeas and Barley

The earthy flavours of spinach, chickpeas and barley come together in this Winter dish which is Turkish in style. A soup, it is full of comfort, nourishment and hope for the future. Are you with me in your love for Winter soups? And with everything that is going on in the world at the moment, we need a little hope for the future. The inspiration for this came from Turquoise, a special book about Turkish cuisine.

Similar dishes include Chickpea and Orzo Soup, Mung Dal with Spinach and Cumin, Chickpeas and Beetroot Greens with Chilli, and Vegetable and Barley Soup.

Browse all of our Spinach dishes, all of our Chickpea dishes, and all of our Soups. Our Turkish recipes are here. Or explore our Late Winter set of recipes.

Bean and Leek Soup | Crème d’Haricots

In 1990, Le Crueset published a book called French Country Kitchen, and it is still one of the best recipe books I have for simple but authentic French recipes. I spent quite some time working in France, so this is a go-to book when I am feeling nostalgic about French people, food, cheese, wine, and their habit of sitting observing the day. Sadly, most of the book is non-veg, but the Soups, Salads, Vegetable and Hor d’Oeuvres chapters provide just enough vegetarian recipes to justify its place in the cookbook bookshelves.

It is Spring time right now, with all of it’s changeable weather, and we have had storms for the past week. I suddenly had a yearning for soup. This easy soup from the Le Crueset book is perfect. Beans are soaked, simmered with leeks and herbs, and then pureed with cream.

The recipe specifies flageolet beans – when I began cooking with these beans in the 1980’s they were available locally but a recent hunt for them failed to locate any. They can be purchased online, dried or canned, but are rather expensive here. It seems that they are grown in Australia and are very popular (!!) but that might be an exaggeration. So I substitute any white bean that I currently have in the pantry.

Similar recipes include Greek White Bean Soup, Italian White Bean Soup, and French Cream of Tomato Soup.

Browse all of our Soups and all of our French recipes. Or simply explore our Mid Spring dishes.