Velouté Du Barry – Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Velouté Du Barry is a creamy cauliflower soup that arrives just in time to offer a bowl to Sippity Sup, who broke his jaw. His site is recently filled to the brim with soups you can drink, and some are quite clever.

Named after the mistress of Louis XV, whenever you see á la Dubarry, the dish will include cauliflower. I could think of many foods I might want to be named after other than cauliflower, but in this case, it has also to do with a dish considered “high class” in preparation and presentation…creamy, silky, smooth, and pure.

Although, Madame Du Barry was not exactly pure, as the last mistress of King Louis XV, her legend lives in this soup. Some say she demanded every meal be made with this dish.

The Process
This is a very easy soup to make, provided you have the right tools….either a blender or my preference an emulsion blender (which is a stick blender) that goes right in the pot. And, then to make it very silky smooth, I use a old fashioned food mill, just as I did in this pumpkin carrot curry soup. It’s that simple. The recipe (and many other similar recipes I researched) call for reserving 1 cup of cauliflower florets to add in later. I preferred to blend it all.

The herb used for this is chervil, which I did not have. I highly recommend the chervil, as this soup is bland without it. If I were not committed to following the recipe, I would add in some fennel for more flavor, but I think the chervil will give it what it needs. Chervil tastes like a parsley/anise cross and the soup needs this, along with a good sea salt and white pepper.

I’ve seen recipes that allow for a non-fat milk instead of cream. This is merely a matter of taste. I prefer less cream and if I were to make this again, I would do the non-fat milk and perhaps a shot of cream.

The recipe called for croutons, and I skipped this part, and this also makes this a gluten free dish.

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Velouté Du Barry - Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Recipe for Veloute Du Barry, cream of cauliflower soup, (adapted from Le Cordon Bleu at Home

Course: Soup

Cuisine: French

Author: Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 small cauliflower divided into small florets
• 2 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 large leek white part only, finely chopped
• 1 large onion chopped fine
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 6 cups chicken stock or water
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup créme fraiche or heavy cream
• chervil or parley leaves for garnish

Instructions

• Soak cauliflower in cold water with the vinegar for five minutes.
• Saute onion and leek in butter until soft. Add rice flour, stirring constantly for five minutes.
• Add in broth and cauliflower and cook until soft. Blend welll.
• In separate bowl mix egg yolk with cream. Add to soup mixture and press through food mill.
• Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with chervil or parsley.

Notes

I think some freshly ground nutmeg is nice in this soup. You can substitute non-fat milk, or milk for cream.

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