Roasted Cauliflower Cheese Soup

Our kids lately have been on a soup kick. When we meal plan together on Sunday nights, they almost always ask for a soup. The all time #1 requested soup is always tomato soup with cheese toast. And yes, I have made my own tomato soup, but lately the preferred tomato soup is the boxed kind from Trader Joe's, even the husband prefers it (it is quite good). But this week, to my surprise, the boy very excitedly requested cauliflower soup!

Now, a few weeks ago I made a cauliflower soup for a woman in our church congregation that had just had knee replacement surgery. She and her sister live together and they are both on the keto diet. So I had to come up with something that was both keto friendly AND vegetarian friendly so I could also feed my family with the same meal. I found a recipe for a copycat recipe for Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup and I thought I would give it a try. I made the soup per the recipe directions and though it was good, I felt there were some things that didn't quite work. So I changed some of the methods, took out some ingredients, and some in to get the recipe below. My whole family loved it, much more than the first go around!

You can serve this soup by itself or you can add toppings such as bacon (gasp!), more shredded cheese, croutons, chives, caramelized onions, roasted broccoli....or just do what we do and have it along a nice grilled cheese on sourdough. 

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Roasted Cauliflower Cheese Soup

Prep time: 10 min Cook time: 35-45 min

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets

1/2 large red onion, chopped

1 - 2 Tb olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2-3 cups vegetable broth 

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup half and half

• Preheat oven to 400 F
• Place cut cauliflower and onion on a baking sheet and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix around the vegetables in order to evenly distribute seasoning and oil. 
• Roast in oven for 20-30 min or until cauliflower is nice and caramelized. 
• While vegetables are roasting, pour vegetable broth into large pot and bring to a boil. Turn temperature down to a simmer. 
• When vegetables are done, add them to the simmering broth and cover with a lid. Let them simmer in the broth for about 10 minutes.
• Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it's nice and smooth. (if you don't have an immersion blender, you can always use a normal blender. Just be careful of the hot liquid)
• Stir in the cheeses in 3-4 batches, making sure it's all melted before adding more.
• Stir in half and half. 

Falafel

I've made this recipe three times. I figure it's quickly becoming a regular in our dinner rotation and I should put it on the blog. So here it is!

I was a little intimidated at the thought of making my own falafel, but this was SO easy, especially with the help of a food processor. And a bonus? All that fresh parsley and cilantro! I just LOVE the way fresh herbs make my kitchen smell gorgeous, not to mention how they make my food taste. Yum yum yum. I haven't made the tahini sauce the original recipe says to serve it with, but I'm sure its delicious. For us, I just buy hummus and pita bread and we eat it like little wraps with sliced cucumber. So good!

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Falafel
Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes

Recipe from www.justataste.com 


 1 large white onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 14oz cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup fresh parsley leaves
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 - 3/4 cup flour
canola or vegetable oil for cooking

• In food processor finely mince the onion and garlic and transfer to a bowl
• Add chickpeas, parsley, cilantro, salt, chili powder and cumin and pulse until the mixture is combined. Do not puree
• Add onion mixture, baking powder and 1/4 cup of flour to the food processor. Pulse, adding more flour if necessary, until the mixture forms a ball. Mixture should not be sticky
• Transfer mixture to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for one hour. 
• When you're ready to cook, heat enough canola or vegetable oil on medium high heat in the bottom of a large heavy bottomed skillet. (Note: I love using cast iron for shallow frying!) 
• Using a cookie scoop, form falafel into balls and fry a few minutes on each side until golden brown. You can smoosh the falafel down while frying to make them thinner. 
• Continue in batches until all the mixture has been used.
• Serve with your favorite hummus and pita bread and enjoy!

Vegetable Lo Mein

I've had a vegetable lo mein recipe ready to post for ages now. I figured it was time to post it, but before I did I wanted to make some again. I came across a different recipe than what I made last time and I decided to give it a try. Oh man am I glad I did. This recipe from Damn Delicious is so good and then best part? It's SO EASY and quick. I'm pretty sure it took me a total of 30 minutes from start to finish.

And in true Rare Knife fashion I made a few changes. First, I used fresh Buitoni linguine. I couldn't find any lo mein egg noodles and this is the closest I could find. Next time I might try to find some at the Asian market up the street, but these actually worked great. When I threw the sauce together it didn't seem like enough, so I doubled it, only adding half and keeping the rest at the ready if I felt like it needed it. It did. In fact, I actually added about a TB of cornstarch to the remaining sauce before adding it to the noodles to help the sauce stick to the food and so it's not so runny. The last change I made was using cabbage instead of the snow peas. I'm not a huge fan of snow peas (except that one time when I was pregnant and craved them one day...it was the weirdest craving I've ever had). The cabbage nicely bulks up the dish and adds a great texture, IMHO. (See that right there? It means, "in my honest opinion." It's what the cool kids say.) Oh and I added some onion!

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Vegetable Lo Mein
Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Servings: 4

Recipe adapted from: damndelicious.net  

8 oz Fresh linguine or fresh lo mein noodles
1 Tb olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 large yellow onion
2 cups of sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 cup carrot, thinly sliced
1 cup shredded cabbage
3 cups baby spinach
Salt and pepper

Sauce:
4 Tb soy sauce
4 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground ginger
1 Tb cornstarch

• Start by whisking together the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ground ginger, and cornstarch and set it aside
• Boil noodles according to package directions and then rinse and drain well and set aside
• In a large saute pan or wok heat oil over medium high and saute onion, mushrooms, pepper and carrots for about 5 minutes or until tender, adding the garlic in halfway through. 
• Add cabbage and spinach to pan and stir until wilted.
• Add sauce to pan, and gently stir for 1-2 minutes until the sauce is thickened and then add noodles and stir until well combined. 
• Add salt and pepper to taste and serve