Cooking classes with the Laughing Lemon: cauliflower soup

“Mum, guess what?” I said on the phone , “I am taking a cooking class about soups!”.  A big silence followed. A few seconds latter, a very distressed sister came to the phone. “Who are you, what have you done with Burntsugar and why are you torturing my Mother?”. Err… I probably was not tactful enough to break up the news that indeed I now like soup and even take the time to cook it. Everyone in the family vividly remember epic fights about plates of soup not being promptly finished, if eaten at all. So, enrolling in a soup class could only the result of something one very wrong – but very very wrong.

Recipe books have fantastic recipes of soups, packed with flavors and textures to go with the kilometric list of ingredients,  but… where is my basic recipe? And what happened to my broths? And my stocks? As soon as I saw the basic soup techniques on the Laughing Lemon, I knew I had to do it… My Mother wouldn’t obviously start teaching me know and pass all the family secrets, and if  I wanted to know more, Jack would be probably the one to answer to all my metaphysical soup dilemmas.  Indeed he did – when we left the class we had tried puree, creams, broth, stocks,  chunky soups…. And, we got to taste them all.

As soon as the occasion presented,  I made this lovely cauliflower cream  Jack taught us. It cannot be easier: just steam cauliflower and yellow onion. Once it is soft, put in a glass of milk and plenty of water and let simmer. When the cauliflower is soft, blend and sieve. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and is ready to go. Seriously, it is all it takes. Very filling, very healthy and with a reasonable calorie count – I mean, what else can you ask from a soup?

For more information about the Laughing Lemon cooking classes can be found here.