Cauliflower-Potato Cheese Soup

Soup. Delicious, life-affirming, soup.

Oh it's been up and down and all around, but at any rate, I managed to get into the kitchen and make some soup.

I love soup. Always have. And lately, it's been the only thing I've really been wanting to eat, so I finally got around to making some. I've got my own favorites that I've made, I've got favorites that I want, but this time I went with a whole new soup thanks to (of course) Jamie Oliver. It's his Cauliflower Cheese Soup from Jamie's Food Revolution and ohhhh gracious.

Try. This. Soup.

And not just because any excuse to use an immersion blender is awesome.

It's comforting, it's flavorful, it's actually not really unhealthy because it's made of cauliflower. And it's simple! Insanely so, actually. I adapted it just a pinch, but even with that...well...you'll see. I added some baby potatoes I had, just Russian Blues and a very buttery type.

Ingredients:

- 2 carrots
- 2 celery stalks
- 2 medium onions
- 3 or 4 cloves of garlic
- 5 cups of cauliflower florets
- 3 cups sliced potato (you can sub this with more cauliflower, if you'd like)
- olive oil
- 1 /34 quarts of chicken stock
- sea salt and freshly ground pepper (actually, mine was a Portuguese Salt Cream but that's neither here nor there)
- basil
- 8 oz chedder cheese (grated)
- 1 TSP English mustard

Instructions: 

Peel and roughly slice your carrots, onions, and garlic. Slice your celery and cauliflower.

Put a large pot on the stove and add in some olive oil, then add all the chopped and sliced veg and mix together with some basil. Cook for about ten minutes with a lid on, askew, until the carrots/potatoes are softened but holding their shape.

Pour the broth into the pot, then let come to a boil.

Reduce the heat and summer, lid on, for about twelve minutes.

Turn off the heat, season with salt and pepper and then add the cheese and mustard, stir it in a bit and then - using your eager roommate if necessary,  use an immersion blender (or in batches in an actual blender, sure) pulse until the soup is smooth.

 Thanks, Matt!

You can serve this with bacon, if you'd like, but you can also do what I did and just cook up some chicken with lemon-pepper, slice it, and add to your bowl. Or you can leave it meatless.

Either way, this should serve 6 - 8 and is insanely delicious.