Creamy cauliflower soup

Cauliflower soup. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This is one of those super-easy recipes that hardly needs written instructions. It's just two ingredients, but it made a creamy, nutritious soup that my eldest daughter loved. It's just cauliflower florets cooked in chicken broth and pureed with my immersion blender. You could add herbs like I did here, but honestly, that was more for the picture than for the taste (the soup's one fault being it is uncompromisingly pale). You could add cream, but unless you have your heart set on dairy, you really don't need it. And if you need a quick weeknight side dish for chicken or a roast, go easy on the broth for a silky cauliflower puree.

Cauliflower Soup

1 head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place cauliflower in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Pour in broth. Let come to a boil, cover the pot and lower the heat. Let simmer for 20 minutes or until tender.

2. Strain the cauliflower, reserving the broth. Add about a cup of the broth back to the pan with the cauliflower and use an immersion blender to puree the vegetables. Gradually add broth until you reach the desired consistency, anywhere between mashed potatoes and soup. Season to taste and serve.

Text and images copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer.