Cauliflower & Gruyere Soup {And Challenge Update}

This soup, courtesy of Ross Dobson and his book Kitchen Seasons, is rich, indulgent and utterly delicious – so good, that I thought it would be rude not to share it with you and I would hate to be considered rude! If you really want to get an idea of what this soup is like then think fondue meets cauliflower and cheese and you will get an idea of how amazing it is. The end result is a smooth, silky soup that is perfect for a cold night snuggled up by the fire. All you need to go with it is some nice crusty bread.

Serves 4-6 (book says 4, I got 6 easily)

2 tbsp butter

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 small cauliflower (about 1kg), cut into small pieces

1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock

250ml double/ whipping cream

200g gruyere cheese, grated (plus a little extra for serving)

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

sprinkling of fresh parsley, chopped

Heat the butter in a large pan until melted and bubbling. Add the onion and celery and cook for roughly 5 minutes until softened but not coloured. Add the cauliflower and stock and bring to the boil then leave to gently boil for roughly 20-25 minutes until the cauliflower is really soft and breaking up.

Leave to cool slightly then puree in a blender in batches until silky smooth. Return the soup to the heat and add the cream and cheese, then cook over a low heat, stirring, until the cheese has melted completely. Season with a little salt and pepper then taste and adjust as necessary. Serve hot in bowls sprinkled with some extra cheese and the parsley and enjoy with some crusty bread.

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Week 1 of the Cookbook Challenge

As I reminder and to those of you that perhaps missed the original post, on October 1^st I challenged myself to a full month of cooking using 10 cookbooks, with a minimum of 1 recipe per day (see here for the full challenge). Here is a quick recap of how my first week went....

Well I managed the first week without too many problems but to be honest this challenge is definitely a lot harder than I thought! I knew it wasn't going to be easy – the planning and scouring the books for recipes I wanted to try was and still is extremely time consuming and a little overwhelming to be honest, but the biggest obstacle I'm finding is that it's just too much food!! There are always left-overs which is great but slowly the fridge is getting more and more filled with Tupperware containers and we just can't keep up! Since part of the challenge was to keep it low in cost I'm going to have to cut back a little.... That being said I am still enjoying it – trying lots of new recipes and reading and re-reading a variety of cookbooks. Out of the 9 recipes I made in week 1, I haven't had any major disasters! Perhaps a couple of recipes that I might not make again, or if I do will have to adjust but really that's not bad going. My favourite recipes of the 9 are both soup recipes and both from the book Kitchen Seasons by Ross Dobson. I have also really enjoyed the recipes from The Meat Free Mondays Cookbook and will be cooking a third time from that book tonight. Here's hoping week 2 is another successful week!

The Tested Recipes:

Day 1:   Strawberry& Banana Smoothie {The Meat Free Mondays Cookbook} ( big thumbs up –   have already made again)

Lentil, Chickpea, Cheddar & Onion Burgers with Winter Coleslaw {The Meat Free Mondays Cookbook}( thumbs up – would make again)

Day 2:   Violet Morning Smoothie {Eat Yourself Thin Faster} ( thumbs up – will make again)

Day 3:   Quinoa & Roasted Tomato Salad {MFM}( as it is it's a miss, but it can definitely be adapted to make it tasty so I might do that. It tasted better on the second day so I haven't ruled it out completely!)

Cauliflower & Gruyere Soup {Kitchen Seasons} (good but even better the next day! It is rich and calorie laden so this is one I would keep for a special occasion. Think fondue meets soup! (See above for recipe.)

Day 4:    Raspberry-Oat Muffins {Pretty Delicious} (easy to make, good taste but bottoms stuck to the wrapper and texture was pretty chewy one cooled. I'm undecided if I will try them again.)

Day 5:    Carrot & Lentil Soup {Kitchen Seasons} ( fantastic! Tasted like the lentil soup my mum used to make and I could probably have eaten the entire pot! Loved it and will be making it all winter long!!)

Day 6:    Orange-Glazed Chicken Stir-Fry on Brown Rice {Pretty Delicious} (really good and will definitely make again. Has quite a kick to it so miss out/cut down the amount of cayenne pepper if you don't want it spicy.)

Day 7:    Breakfast Burrito {Eat Yourself Thin Faster} ( A perfect start to the day and a slightly healthier option as well! I loved adding the chopped chillies to the scrambled eggs for a bit of a kick but it did mean I had to make a 2^nd spice-free version for Wee One! I also added more turkey sausage than the recipe called for as ½ a sausage seemed ridiculous!! Anyway it was delicious and both hubby and I really enjoyed it! I will definitely make these again.)

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Strawberry & Banana Smoothie

This is the first recipe I tried on my October Cookbook Challenge and it was so good I had to share it with you. As with most smoothie recipes this takes no time at all to make so is perfect for a fast, delicious and nutritious breakfast. It is so creamy I'm also going to try freezing it for ice lollies/ popsicles which I just know everyone in the family will love.

Serves 3-4

225g/ 8oz strawberries, trimmed and cut in half

1 banana, roughly chopped

140g/ 5oz natural yogurt

1 ¼ cups/ 300ml milk

1 tbsp honey or to taste

Simply put all of the ingredients into a blended and blitz until it is smooth, creamy and delicious! Perfect for breakfast or a morning snack and great for when you are in a rush and need something to go.

*This recipe is part of my October Cookbook Challenge and was taken from The Meat Free Monday Cookbook.

Cookbook Challenge Oct. 2012 ~ 31 Days; 10 Books & 1 Challenge!

The Challenge – To cook at least one meal a day from a cookbook of choice for the month of October. The recipes must be followed exactly so as to properly test them and the budget must be no more (and hopefully less!) than an ordinary month.

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That's right folks, for the month of October I am challenging myself to cook at least one meal a day using a cookbook! Now while that might not sound like a challenge for a lot of you, for someone who owns over 1000 cookbooks and rarely cooks from them, this is a challenge for me! Inspired by the bloggers challenge 'Random Recipes' hosted by Dom over at the lovely Belleau Kitchen, I have stepped things up a few notches so that I am not making one recipe a month from a random book, but rather one a day!

With that said however, this challenge isn't quite so random as I have picked out 9 books of choice (fairly randomly and without looking through them) in order to help with meal planning and shopping. The final book for the challenge - book number 10, was picked by you - the readers (through facebook). For those of you that missed it I selected 5 books from my 'library' and the one with the most votes was the lucky book to join the challenge, which turned out to be the Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten. The other 9 books were fairly randomly picked - I tried to do a real mix and choose books that I thought might be fairly familiar to people..... so here they are the 10 books I will be cooking from in October.....

Coconut Cake {A Random Recipe Challenge}

I love the Random Recipes Challenge set to us by the lovely Dom of Belleau Kitchen, however for the past couple of months I have missed the deadlines due to (let's be honest here) too much basking in the wonderful Canadian sun! This month however I was determined to take part especially when it was revealed that this months challenged was teamed up with Tea Time Treats courtesy of Karen from Lavender &Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. Not so good for my expanding waist line but a challenge is a challenge and I had to do it after being absent for so long, so like the good girl that I am I headed straight to my baking collection of books. Now the challenge was Tea Time Treats so it seemed only appropriate to pick the book Afternoon Tea Parties by Susannah Blake, since that's as close as you get to any Tea Time Treats! I closed my eyes and randomly flicked through the pages. When I stopped I was extremely happy to discover I had picked her 'Snow-topped Coconut Cake' which was part of the Winter Wonderland tea menu. Since I love coconut and lime I was ecstatic, and after drooling over the accompanying picture for a couple of weeks I finally got round to baking the cake.

Mango & Strawberry Smoothie

You can't beat making up a smoothie in the morning to get you going for breakfast or a mid-morning snack. This Mango & Strawberry Smoothie is so quick and easy to make and super healthy too so you really can't go wrong!