Monday, July 21, 2008

Update: Orange Cauliflower Soup with Chipotle

I'm so hooked on these veggie soup purees I just can't stop making them or eating them, lol! Here's the slight adjustment I made to my Chipotle Cauliflower soup:


I used orange cauliflower, because the added color can be more nutritious. Supposedly colored veggies have more phyto-nutients. Some scientists believe the more diverse the colors in your foods, the healthier the diet. It's not that any one color has more nutrients, it's that the more variety in color that's important. There is no taste difference between white, orange or purple cauliflower.....guess what color your soup will be if you use purple cauliflower. Purple....unless you also add in the green leaves and then you will get a lovely shade of gray....."battlelship gray" lol. I had to close my eyes to eat it!

I did not roast the cauliflower first. One reason, to save time, another reason, to save calories (roasting uses additional oil), and I wanted to taste any differences. I could taste a difference because I know what I was looking for. I find roasting veggies give them a slight sweetness when the natural sugars carmelize (that's what creates the brown color).


So I listened to my first instinct (last time I made this) and added some brown sugar. I added only a teaspoon at first....tasted it, and then decided another teaspoon was fine (2 tsp. to 1 qt. soup). I chose brown sugar because it's a common sweetener used in mexican cooking. The addition of molasses makes the sugar brown, also adding a bit more flavor. Sugar is a common seasoning that brings out the sweetness in tomatoes....the adobo sauce chipotles are canned with is a tomato based sauce....I wanted to bring out that tomato-ey flavor....perfect!

Next time I might even add one more chipotle pepper, lol!


Life is good. Veggie soups are good.

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