Roasted Cauliflower Soup Recipe with Gluten-Free Croutons | Sure Foods Living - gluten-free and allergen-free living

By EdieK

Cauliflower is a winter vegetable, which means it is as its best during the winter months. Look for a cauliflower that is white with no spots on it and stay away from bags of pre-cut cauliflower! Cauliflower is low in fat and a great soup ingredient in place of the starchy potato.

The bottom line is… it’s good for you! And I think you’ll like the taste too…

Use the soup recipe below as is, or add in any of your own favorite spices (cumin, curry, cayenne) or garnishes (a swirl of creme fraiche, chopped fresh parsley).

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into chunks (green stem and leaves discarded)
• 3 carrots, cut into chunks (peeled or not — doesn’t matter!)
• 1 medium to large red onion, cut into chunks (definitely peel this one!)
• olive oil
• salt
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth, or more if you like a thinner soup (see which chicken broth is gluten-free)
• 2-3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, or other vinegar, or lemon juice
• gluten-free croutons, or 3 slices of any gluten-free bread

Preparation

Step 1

Throw chunks of cauliflower, carrots and onion in a roasting pan or on a cookie sheet with sides.
Drizzle olive oil over all of the veggies and sprinkle with a little salt. (I use a salt grinder and do a quick grind over everything. Less is better, because you can always add salt to the soup later.) Mix the veggies around a little to evenly distribute the olive oil and salt.
Cook veggies in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.
Transfer the roasted vegetables to a pot on the stove and add the broth.
Bring pot to a boil, then simmer 15 minutes. Carrots should be soft when pierced with a fork — if not, simmer until they are.
Puree* the vegetables and broth to desired texture. Add more broth if a thinner consistency is desired.
Taste and adjust seasonings. Does it need more salt? Add pepper and other spices as you wish, or leave it with just salt. Add in the vinegar or lemon juice to give it a little extra flavor.
Garnish with croutons**, chopped herbs, a swirl of creme fraiche — whatever you like!

*To puree soup:
I prefer to use an immersion hand blender. Frankly, I probably wouldn’t even make soup if I didn’t own one of these! You stick it into the pot, push the button and it magically turns anything into soup. (I also use it to foam milk for cafe au laits in the morning!)
If you don’t have one, let the contents of the pot cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer to a blender or food processor and puree in batches. Be careful you don’t splatter yourself with hot soup! Transfer the pureed soup back into the pot.

**To make gluten-free croutons:
This is so easy, but sometimes I forget that croutons are a nice addition to a soup or salad. To make croutons, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then,
Cut the slices of gluten-free bread into cubes.
Coat with olive oil.
You can do this many ways:

lay bread cubes on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil and toss them around
use a pastry brush and brush the oil on while they are in the pan
spray the cubes with oil
put cubes in a bowl and toss with olive oil
Season with salt and pepper. Other seasoning options are garlic salt, fresh or dried herbs such as basil, rosemary or thyme.
Bake in oven on a baking pan until crunchy, about 10-15 minutes. Toss the croutons with a spatula part way through for even browning.
Or you could totally cheat, like I did in the picture, and just toast the cubes in your toaster oven! As long as they’re crunchy, they qualify as croutons in my opinion!