Heart filled Curried Cauliflower Soup

Serves: 4-6

Written By Eydie Desser

This warming and fragrant soup is just perfect to serve to the ones you love. I made it for my Ed on Valentines day. Adorned with red “beet” hearts brought a big smile to his face; he leaned over and gave me a sweet kiss! It works every time!

Equipment needed: small squeeze bottle with tip, small heart shaped cookie cutter

Ingredients

For the Soup:

4 cups House Vegetable Stock, or salt free vegetable stock
1 cup chopped white onion
2 teaspoon Madras Curry powder
½ teaspoon saffron threads or a big pinch of saffron powder
1 Fuji apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
4 cups cauliflower florets (about 1 medium head)
2 large red beets

Directions

Make the Soup:

Warm the vegetable stock over medium heat.
Place a heavy bottom 5-½ quart pot over medium-high heat. Once hot, dry sauté the onions, curry powder and saffron, until the onions are translucent. Add the sliced apple and sweat for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
Add the cauliflower and warm vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Boil until the cauliflower is soft when pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes. Add pepper to taste.
Transfer the soup in batches to a blender and purée at high speed until very smooth. Keep warm until ready to serve, or refrigerate when cool and reheat before serving. Or freeze the soup and defrost and rewarm for a yummy last minute dinner.

Make the “heart(s)”:

Boil the red beets in water until tender when pierced with a knife, about 20-30 minutes depending on size of the beet. Using a spoon or tongs, lift the beet out of the water and place it in a bowl of cold water. Once cool enough to handle, remove the skin with your hands. It’s useful to wear gloves so that your hands don’t stain.
Coarsely chop the beets and place in a blender. Purée with 2 tablespoons of water until it’s a very smooth, thin sauce, adding more water if necessary.
Place the purée in a fine sieve over a measuring cup, pressing the juice out with the back of a spoon. Pour the beet juice in a small squeeze bottle with a small tip.

To Serve:

Place a heart shaped cookie cutter in the center of the soup bowl you are using. Pour the warm cauliflower soup all around the outside of the cookie cutter.
Squeeze the beet juice in the center of the heart cookie cutter until it reaches the same height as the soup. Carefully remove the cookie cutter.
Alternatively, squeeze dots of beet juice all around the edge of the soup. With a toothpick, swipe from one side to the other, making hearts.