It was the Soup Swap yesterday.  I’ve been going to these for almost 20 years and I always look forward to it.  You make 6 quarts of soup, freeze it in 6 individual bags and then at the party we do a round robin swap.  I think I’ve talked about it before.

Being a vegetarian at a soup swap in the autumn can sometimes be rough.  In fact, at the very first swap I attended, I was the only one who brought a vegetarian soup; I went home with 6 frozen bags of meat soup.  (I distributed them in my neighborhood).  But the party is fun, so I’ve taken my chances many times since then.  Yesterday was a mixed bag.  We ended up with multiples of the same soups: Minestrone, African Peanut & Sweet Potato, Rosemary Lentil.  In addition to these soups, I made way more of our soup that needed as YA is always complaining that I never make enough for US to have some.  I made four batches:

So here is the recipe:  Golden Caulifower Soup (thanks to Carissa Stanton and her Seriously, So Good cookbook.

Roasted cauliflower
4 c. chopped cauliflower florets (about 1¼ lbs)
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. red chile flakes (optional)
½ tsp. pepper

Soup
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed (about 2 cups)
4 c. vegetable broth
1 can (13 ½ oz) full fat coconut milk

Pumpkin seeds (garnish)
1/3 c. pumpkin seeds
½ tbsp. olive oil
¼ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. salt
Pepper to taste

Roast the cauliflower.  Heat the oven to 425°F.   In a large bowl, drizzle the cauliflower with the olive oil and sprinkle with the turneric, cumin, salt, chile flakes and pepper.  Toss until coated.  Arrange the cauliflower on a pan lined with foil and roast for 20 minutes, turning the florets halfway through.  Set aside (but leave oven on).

Make the soup.  Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent (5-7 mns).  Add potato, broth, coconut milk and the roasted cauliflower.  Increase the heat to high.  When soup boils, reduce heat and simmer covered for about 15 minutes.  Use either in immersion blender or stand blender to blend the soup until smooth.  Serve with the pumpkin seeds as a garnish.

Toast the pumpkin seeds.  Drizzle olive oil over the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Lay out the seeds on foil lined sheet and roast at 350° for about 12 minutes.

We have plenty of soup for the fall (although I’m sure I’ll have to make tomato soup soon to use up our surplus tomatoes).

Do you have a favorite soup for the fall?