Friends, I’m happy to be back partnering with Minerva Dairy Amish Butter and bringing you a most delicious golden cauliflower soup with butter fried almonds and pomegranate.

I got the idea from the golden latte I love at a favorite coffee shop. Turmeric drives that beautiful golden color and I’ve added curry for heat and coconut milk for a smoothy wonderfulness.

On the way to this soup, I’ve discovered a wonderful recipe roasting a whole cauliflower with lots and lots of butter.

I smeared the Minerva Dairy butter all over a whole cauliflower and sprinkled with turmeric. You could stop right here and or proceed with this exquisite, creamy, golden soup.

When it comes to vegetables, nothing enhances them more than good butter.  I love Minerva Dairy Amish Butter, which is 85% butterfat, churned for the past 125 years by over six generations of butter makers, using old fashioned butter churns. The butter is made from pasture-raised cow milk, ensuring the highest quality, and greatest taste.

Minerva Dairy Butter can be purchased unsalted, with sea salt or garlic herb. You can make this soup with any of these choices, but garlic herb is a great choice for added flavor.

I was not shy in smearing the butter over the cauliflower before roasting. Cauliflower has a reputation of being a boring or bland vegetable. The good news about that is how it lends itself to creativity and exciting flavor profiles, which transforms it into so many exciting recipes.

Roast at 400 degrees F. for about 40 minutes. You can check at 35 minutes by using a meat thermometer, as 165 degrees F. seemed to work well.

Why Roast Cauliflower Whole?

You might be asking if you shorten the time by cutting up the cauliflower first before roasting. Yes, you can do that, but you do risk having uneven roasting, some browning of different pieces. I wanted a very golden soup, and this method of roasting whole worked well and was less prep time.

I wouldn’t fret too much because it will all go into a super blender (such as a Vitamix) to puree.

 Garnish Golden Cauliflower Soup with Almonds, Pomegranate

Creamy soups need to be garnished. I saved some of the tidbits of cauliflower for topping and added in butter fried sliced almonds and cool crisp pomegranate arils. It’s a perfect medley of textures and the pomegranate helps to cool off the spice.

You can use a chicken broth or coconut milk when pureeing the soup. I like a combination of both. If you don’t use coconut milk, you can add in about 1/3 cup heavy cream.

You can make this golden cauliflower soup as mild or as spicy as you like. I added in a teaspoon of mild curry powder, which still has a kick to it and was enough spice for us, but feel free to make this to your own taste.

This is also great left over. I was eating this three days later and enjoyed every single spoonful!

Take a look at more Minerva Dairy Butter at their website, as they have a few different types of butter to try, including sea salt and garlic herb.

Some of the other Minerva Butter Recipes:

Italian Sausage Stuffed Biscuits (using Minerva Garlic Butter)

Blueberry Peach Slab Pie (Make this with apples for the holidays)

More Cauliflower Recipes You Will Love

Whole Roasted Cauliflower (the recipe related to this soup).

Shaved Cauliflower Salad

Popcorn Cauliflower, Flash Fried

Baked Cauliflower with Butter and Parmesan

Cauliflower Hash with Poached Eggs

Mashed Cauliflower

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Golden Cauliflower Soup

Golden Cauliflower Soup with Turmeric, Coconut Milk, butter fried almonds, Pomegranate seeds.

Course Soup

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 large head cauliflower
• 2 shallots
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons turmeric spice divided
• 1 teaspoon mild curry spice
• 1 can coconut milk (13.5 ounce) can use 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups hot water or broth
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Trim off the stems of the cauliflower.
• Mix butter with 2 tablespoons turmeric. Rub butter all over cauliflower.
• Roast cauliflower and whole shallots together.
• Check at 20 minutes. Shallots may need to be removed.
• Continue roasting for another 20 minutes or until softened. I discovered an internal temperature of 165 Degrees F. is good.
• Once you take cauliflower out of the oven, cut into pieces that will fit in your blender. RESERVE a few end tidbits for garnish.
• Using a heavy-duty blender, put in coconut milk, 1 cup broth, cauliflower, shallots, curry spice, making sure to put liquid in first. Add turmeric a little at a time. You may not need it all.

  You can use boiled hot water in place of broth. Add more broth as needed. You want the soup texture to be creamy but thick enough to hold the toppings.
• Season with salt and pepper, and taste for spiciness. You may want to add in more turmeric and curry powder, a little at a time.

Make Almonds

• Melt 1 teaspoon butter in frying pan. Toast almonds for a minute or two until golden.

Garnish Soup

• Pour soup in bowls. Add cauliflower tidbits, chopped parsley, pomegranate arils, almonds.

The post Golden Cauliflower Soup with Toasted Almonds appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Pumpkin carrot curry soup with peanuts in the Spring, not the Fall!
Well, yes, if I waited until October, you might miss out on something delicious, savory, sweet, spicy, and yet, healthy and light. No, I need to share it now. And when the fall comes, I’ll develop a completely different pumpkin soup.

This is perfectly rainy day tasty and just waiting for a nice salad by it’s side to balance the spicy curry flavor. And, it fits into my skinny/sexy food category.

This “autumn in the spring” began with a $1 can of pumpkin found on clearance that was going to be my practice pumpkin for ravioli. But last Saturday standing in my familiar spot in the kitchen, getting ready to make this carrot soup, I couldn’t help myself. The “what if” went through my head and in a flash I opened the can of pumpkin. I immediately realized that I now have to develop a completely different recipe.

I set out to make this carrot soup and ended up with pumpkin carrot curry soup.

What if?
The nagging what if I added this or tried that prevents me from remaking many of my original recipes. It’s like a compulsive tick. I have to try new things all the time, several times a week. Really, I can never be quite sure what we will be eating, even when the ingredients are all laid out on the table. How many times a pot is staring at me on the stove and I grab an ingredient and do the “what if” I added this? And, it doesn’t always work out.

The garbage disposal can tell you all about my secret failures. But, there is such a warm satisfaction when a what if does work out. And, frankly, almost everything we eat is a what if. I tell you this because I really like to see people have fun with food and not eat combinations determined by the food industry or even the latest trends.

I know it’s spring, not fall, but breaking the rules is part of the fun. In fact, I hope you make some Christmas cookies for Easter.

The Process
I cooked the carrots, leeks, pumpkin and then the fun began. Salted peanuts, curry, nutmeg, cardamon, and a little more curry. The salty peanuts were roasted first as they were left over from a salty caramel frosting I have yet to tell you about. The peanuts add a nice extra layer of flavor. I used all I had or I probably would have topped the soup with some crushed peanuts.

The recipe is truly a guideline, as you may prefer to chop your own chiles, or use a different hot sauce. I used to have a roommate who was born in Vietnam and we would make a lot of soup, always using the sriracha and ever since then, it’s my “go to” hot sauce. It’s very hot, so just a dollop and taste. I use this often in my Italian seafood sauces, but sparingly.

The smell of this soup made the whole house smell exotic. Savory, spicy, and sweet and heat, yet light enough for me to be able to eat half the pot and still not worry about how much I worked out this week.

I had to use a magic bullet to puree because I’ve yet to replace my emulsion blender that I burned out. It was still a bit thick and then a genius idea hit me. Use my late Aunt Rita’s tomato mill, used to make tomato puree. Perfect.

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Pumpkin Carrot Curry Soup

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots peeled, cut into chunks
• 2 cups of water
• 1 large leek washed, sliced thinly (white part only)
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 large can pumpkin
• 1/2 cups salted roasted peanuts, ground in food processor (can substitute 2 tablespoons peanut butter)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half or almond milk as used in this carrot soup.
• A few squeezes sriracha chile sauce or chopped chiles or hot sauce of your choice
• pure maple syrup to garnish

Instructions

• Put carrots in large pot with water, leeks, and all spices, until carrots are cooked.
• Add pumpkin, ground peanuts. Cook for 30 minutes on low heat.
• Stir in cream.
• Stir in chile sauce.
• Puree with immersion blender or regular blender).
• For an extra silky texture, I processed through the food mill.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve hot. Top each cup with yogurt, maple syrup or both.

Notes

Make this soup as mild or as hot as you prefer. I made it quite hot, and offset the heat with the maple syrup. You could top with plain yogurt or maple yogurt. You may need to add more water. You can choose your own consistency.

I made this soup on a Saturday and we ate it again 4 days later. It was incredibly much better, so I recommend making this soup the day before you first eat it. Serve with a fruited salad, and some naan bread.

Had I known in advance I was going to make this soup, I would have had some hot Naan bread to go with it.

This recipe was done on the fly, so please use this as a guideline, and taste along the way.

The post Pumpkin Carrot Curry Soup appeared first on Spinach Tiger.