Name: Cream of cauliflower soup with bacon sprinkles
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 25g butter; 1 large onion finely chopped; 1 leek finely sliced; 3 celery sticks, finely sliced; 2 cauliflower cut into florets; 500ml milk; 1l vegetable stock; 150ml double cream; grating of nutmeg; crisp bacon bits (optional); rough croûtons; chopped hard-boiled eggs; crumbled blue cheese

Cream of cauliflower soup with sprinkles

25g butter
1 large onion
finely chopped
1 leek
finely sliced
3 celery
sticks, finely sliced
2 cauliflower
cut into florets
500ml milk
1l vegetable stock
150ml double cream
grating of nutmeg

Sprinkles, to serve

crisp bacon
bits (optional)
rough croûtons
chopped hard-boiled eggs
crumbled blue cheese

Method

step 1
Heat the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion, leek and celery. Cook very gently for 10 mins until soft but not coloured. Add the cauliflower, milk and stock. Bring to a simmer, then gently cook for 10-12 mins until the cauliflower is tender. Add the cream and bring back to the boil. Season with salt and nutmeg, then place in a blender and blitz until smooth. If you like, you can sieve the soup to make it even smoother – I think this makes a difference and doesn’t take much more effort, but it’s certainly not essential.
step 2
To serve, bring the soup to the table in the pan with a ladle and little dishes of all the different things you want to serve as sprinkles. Let everyone help themselves. I like to take little servings of soup and scatter over something different each time for variety.