Donna Hay's Cauliflower and Corn Chowder for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

Today just isn't sure what it wants to do--it's rainy, then it's sunny, it's a bit breezy and a balmy 73 degrees so perfect for a sunny bowl of chowder. Donna Hay's Cauliflower and Corn Chowder is my soup pick this week. It's a vegetarian soup that can be vegan if you use a dairy-free parmesan or omit it. 

This chowder has no cream, the beans and cauliflower thicken it up when part of the soup is blended.

Cauliflower and Corn Chowder

Slightly Adapted from DonnaHay.com

(Makes 4 Servings)

800 grams (about 1 3/4 - 2 lbs) cauliflower, cut into small florets

1 clove garlic, crushed (I used 2 large cloves--one on the topping and one in the soup)

3/4 cup, finely grated parmesan

sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 leek, thinly sliced

2 corncobs, kernels removed (I used 1 1/2 cups frozen corn)

1 can white beans, rinsed and drained

1 litre vegetable stock

2 cups water (I used 5 cups of non-chicken stock)

1/2 bunch chives, chopped

1/4 cup dill sprigs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place 2 cups of the cauliflower in a large bowl. Add the garlic, parmesan, salt, pepper, and half the of the oil and toss to combine. Spread the cauliflower mixture on a large oven tray and cook for 20 minutes or until golden.

While the cauliflower is cooking, heat the remaining oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until softened. Add the corn, beans, stock, water, salt, pepper, and remaining cauliflower. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. Pour half the mixture into a jug or blender jar and using a handheld blender or the regular blender, blend until smooth. Return to the soup pot and cook for another 10 minutes.

Divide the soup between bowls and top with the roasted cauliflower, chives, dill, and black pepper to serve. 

Notes/Results: First off, if you are making the roasted cauliflower with the parmesan and garlic, I suggest doing more that 2 cups worth. Basically because you are going to shove the bits of roasted cauliflower and parmesan crisps bites into your mouth before it gets near the soup bowls. (OK, maybe that's just me.) This is a simple soup, satisfying but not too heavy and good flavor (although I used extra garlic and all stock in mine). I would happily make it again.

Linking up this post to I Heart Cooking Clubs where it's Potluck week.

Now let's check out the Souper Sundays kitchen and see who is here!

Judy of Gluten Free A-Z Blog shared Broccoli Almond Soup and said, "This is a new soup that was not published in my cookbook. The combination of broccoli and almonds in this beautiful soup is quite delicious. The almonds add that Je ne sais quoi. to a simple broccoli soup. ... This broccoli soup was light, creamy, and delicious and not too heavy for my warmer weather. The small amount of almonds gave it a little texture, protein, and healthy fat- but not too much!"

The Crafty Gardener went a bit rogue with her entry, "Soup'er Tuna Casserole," made from a can of soup, but we'll honor it. She says, "I love an old fashioned tuna casserole for dinner. Although this is not a soup recipe I’m still including it with my ‘soup’er recipes as it uses a can of condensed soup."

Debra of Eliot's Eats brought Spicy Lentil Soup, saying, "This soup came out perfect. I loved the combination of flavors and the spicy richness. Check your fridge and pantry for the ingredients. If you don’t have them all, improvise. This soup is very forgiving. For instance, my celery was quite limp and my carrots a bit slimy and who knows how old the lentils were. Don’t have brown lentils? Use green. No worries. It all works."

Welcome Liz from Spades, Spatulas & Spoons who joins us for the first time at Souper Sundays and brings a Spicy White Bean Soup with Chicken. She says, "Melissa Clark of the NY Times calls this recipe “a poem in a bowl”. I must agree that it is certainly delicious and a little different. It gets it’s spiciness from fresh ginger, red-pepper flakes, and cumin. A squeeze of lemon at the end adds a welcome freshness."

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen is here with Broccoli and Stilton Soup. She says, "The reason why I wanted to share it, just made me chuckle. The recipe comes from New Covent Garden Soup for Every Day and this Broccoli and Stilton was the recipe they actually suggested to make on the 28th February and what is the date today?!  See why I am chuckling to myself. It was really accidental and not planned. The soup was rich and quite creamy naturally from the addition of the potatoes, so I omitted the cream from the original recipe in the cookbook. I have decided that I actually like broccoli in soup." 

Thank you to everyone who joined me this week!

 

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!