Silky Smooth Soups But No Cuisinart

I mentioned in my last post that it was wonderful to be back in the city if only for the wealth of ingredients that are now at my fingertips. One such ingredient that I picked up on a whim is pomegranate molasses, which immediately inspired me to make a roasted cauliflower soup so that I could drizzle it on top. I’ve never used pomegranate molasses before but once the idea was in my head I had to make it happen, so here it is! I started by cutting up a head of cauliflower, drizzling it with olive oil and sprinkling some salt and cumin on top. I roasted it in the oven at 450F until it began to brown. Then I used my super duper high speed blender to puree the cauliflower with some chicken stock. A couple minutes later I had a silky smooth mixture that I topped with pomegranate molasses and presto, I had soup. I couldn’t live without that blender. It was one of the essential kitchen items that had to come with me when I moved. Unfortunately, some of my other toys didn’t make the move and I’m missing them now. Somehow I managed to forget my microplane zester and I miss it everyday. I’m also missing my jelly roll pan, a spaghetti pot and worst of all, my Cuisinart! Unfortunately, I’ll never get that back. Somehow, (and I still don’t quite understand how that happened) Dad threw it out! Yes, that’s right, a relatively new Cuisinart that I had just purchased less than two years ago and that had been sitting safely in storage, or so I thought. In one of Dad’s “throw out” phases, he tossed it. Instead of throwing out their 30 year old Cuisinart with the broken buttons, he threw out my pristine machine that had been waiting patiently to be used again. Sigh.

I try not to think of my poor baby wasting away on a trash pile somewhere, and so to distract myself, I’ll tell you about another soup- Jamie Oliver’s Pumpkin Soup which I made for the November Cooking Club on FoodTV Canada’s blog. I always make squash soup during the fall and winter months, but rarely from a recipe, I usually just throw in whatever I feel like, so actually sticking to Jamie's recipe was new for me. I'm glad I did though, I really liked the addition of chestnuts! I couldn't find any canned chestnuts so I had to roast my own and to get the sage I had to dig it out from under the snow but it was all good! Of course, I used my blender to whip this soup creamy too, it’s my favourite way to do it.

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Cauliflower + Squash + Soup