Cauliflower Soup With Blue Cheese Walnut Baguette

Today is the first day of autumn and the weather is getting cool. It's my favourite time of year, leggings, oversized sweaters, leg warmers, changing leaves and SOUP. First day of autumns call for a good comforting soup. So me and my mom went looking for the perfect recipe and decided on a classic cauliflower soup kicked up a notch with so
me autumn flavours.

Looking through Pinterest I've felt inspired to make a real rustic meal. From the photography to the flavours. The creamy blue cheese and roughly chopped almonds adds the perfect rustic touch to the delicate cauliflower soup. And I even think I'm starting to get a hang of the photography though I still have a ways to go (so please, I invite suggestions! :) My biggest problem as far as picture taking, is a always make food come sun down! No sunlight, unfortunately makes for poorer picture :( But I will find a way with some practice!

All in all this recipe turned out to be just what I was looking for! It was like you could taste the autumn on your tongue! Definitely going on my staple soup list for those chilly evening when you need something to warm you up!

Ingredients

For the Soup

• 2 tbsp butter

• 1 Vidalia onion, peeled and diced

• 3-4 cloves garlic, crushed

• 2 sprigs fresh thyme (If you don't have fresh time on hand you can substitute for dried but fresh ingredients are always nice for taste as well as garnish)

• 1 large Cauliflower, broken into florets

• 1.2 litres chicken stock (approximately 5 cups....For this step you can also use 1.2 litres water with 4 chicken bouillon cubes)

• ½ 35% cup cream

• ½ cup milk

• ½ cup grated Parmesan or Romano

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• ¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg 

• 2 tbsp cream extra (for garnish)

  

For Baguette

• 1 French stick

• soft blue cheese

• walnuts, very roughly chopped (This can be substituted with Pecans as I did, since they were what I had around the house!)

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan (make sure it is large enough to fit all your cauliflower!) and add onion with some sea salt . Cook over a gentle heat for 10-12 minutes until the onion is soft but not coloured.

2. Add garlic and thyme and cook a couple of minutes more.

3. Add cauliflower and stock, cover and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is easily pierced with a knife. (At this step you want to make the cauliflower stalk is done tender as well because it will take longer than the rest)

4. Add cream, milk and Parmesan and cook a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and blend in a food processor, or with a hand blender until smooth and creamy. (A regular blender works just as well at this step but I would not recommend an electric beater with the whisk attachments, I attempted this first and the consistency did not come out smooth enough.)

5. Test for seasoning and if necessary add a little more sea salt and freshly ground black pepper . Serve hot with a swirl of extra cream and a sprinkling of nutmeg and the baguette! (At first I added the sprinkling of nutmeg for garnish but turned out to be a delicious addition that added a bit more flavour than the initial amount of it in the soup)

For The Blue Cheese Walnut Baguette

1. Slice French stick diagonally into 1 inch thick slices. (However many pieces you would like to serve...I did 8, 2 for each member of the family)  

2. Butter the bread and set oven to broil on highest rack and let the bread toast, this will only take a minute or two so watch very carefully, you would be surprised at how fast it happens!

3. Once toasted remove from oven and top with crumbled blue cheese and chopped walnuts