Roasted Cauliflower Pumpkin Soup

This healthy soup tastes super creamy and indulgent, yet it doesn't have any cream or even milk for that matter. Canned white beans and raw cashews replace the creaminess and add nutrition to boot, and you can substitute the half cup of cashews with another can of white beans if you want. Seven ingredients (besides salt, pepper and a little olive oil) are all it takes; throw cauliflower, apples and garlic all on the same pan and roast while you blend up the cashew nuts, pumpkin, white beans, and stock in a blender. If you want to use freshly roasted pumpkin you can, but canned pumpkin works great in this recipe too. The roasted cauliflower is broken-up and thrown in for texture after the mixture cooks, but you can make this soup as smooth or as chunky as you want. Enjoy!

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Roasted Cauliflower Pumpkin Soup

Yield: 8 - 10 servings

Author: Judes Draughon

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 15 M

This healthy soup tastes super creamy and indulgent, yet it doesn't have any cream or even milk for that matter. Canned white beans and raw cashews replace the creaminess and add nutrition to boot, and you can substitute the half cup of cashews with another can of white beans if you want. Seven ingredients (besides salt, pepper and a little olive oil) are all it takes; throw cauliflower, apples and garlic all on the same pan and roast while you blend up the cashew nuts, pumpkin, white beans, and stock in a blender. If you want to use freshly roasted pumpkin you can, but canned pumpkin works great in this recipe too. The roasted cauliflower is broken-up and thrown in for texture after the mixture cooks, but you can make this soup as smooth or as chunky as you want. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 garlic bulb
• 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 tbsp olive oil (for roasting)
• 1/4 tsp sea or kosher salt
• 2 large apples or 3 small (sweeter variety), peeled, roughly cut
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup raw cashews (or 1 can of white beans, rinsed and drained)
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 can (1.5 cups) of white beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 tsp sea or kosher salt (or to taste)
• 1/8 tsp pepper (or to taste)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 of the top of whole bulb, exposing the individual cloves of garlic. Drizzle a little oil on exposed cloves and wrap in foil. Place wrapped foil in the oven to begin cooking.
2. Mix cauliflower pieces with 2 1/2 tsp olive oil and spread out on most of a rimmed baking sheet; sprinkle with salt. Peel apples and cut in large pieces off core. Mix apples with a little oil and spread on the pan with cauliflower but keep them separate. Place the pan in the oven with the foiled garlic and roast until tender and lightly browned.
3. Using a blender, add about half the chicken stock, cashews, beans (reserve 1/2 cup beans if you want to add to the soup whole) and pumpkin. Add more chicken stock to blender if needed. If you want more texture in the soup besides the roasted cauliflower, add some of the beans to your soup pot rather than the blender.
4. When garlic is tender after 20 minutes or so, use a hot pad to turn garlic bulb up-side-down over blender (still filled with blended ingredients) and squeeze from the bottom of the clove, so roasted garlic falls into blender. Add roasted apples to blender, as well, and blend. If the blender becomes to full at any time, just pour some out into the soup pot. Add all ingredients to the soup pot except the cauliflower. Simmer ingredients over low heat for about 30 minutes; stir frequently. Add more chicken stock if soup becomes too thick. Roughly cut up roasted cauliflower into smaller pieces and add to soup. Mix together for a few minutes and turn off heat. Sprinkle with roasted pumpkin seed for garnish.

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