No. 234: Soup Love, Cauliflower Bonanza, Caramelized Leek Tart & More
Leeks are the backbone of so many great soups; cauliflower is our favorite "winter white." Plus: what's happening this week on the Vineyard.
🥣 Up Your Garnish Game
This past week, my sister, husband and I were in a little café/bakery in Lewes, Delaware called The Station on King’s and had a delicious butternut squash soup garnished with pickled cranberries, roasted pepitas, and a “toasted brown butter marshmallow.” Not only was the soup deeply flavored – too many squash soups are wan and under-seasoned – but those garnishes, especially that homemade marshmallow slowly melting in the soup, were brilliant. You could absolutely replicate that with our Ginger Apple Squash Soup, which is delicious made from a kabocha or red kuri squash, and a sliced store-bought marshmallow.
Soup garnishes – rustic croutons, slivered crisped salami, herb butters, pestos, fried leeks or shallots, toasted nuts, tiny pickles – are not only fun to make, but also really raise the bar on your soup presentation and flavor. So don’t forget them!
💜 Two heads of cauliflower are better than one - especially if one is purple.
But instead of making squash soup, I went a different direction this weekend. For some reason, when I left the Island, I brought along not one, but two heads of cauliflower with me. One was a purple cauliflower from Ghost Island Farm, so there’s that. But it’s not like they don’t have cauliflower in Delaware! (Oh well.) I slow-sautéed florets from the purple head with bacon, onions, and some random herbs from my Dad’s backyard. The other head went straight into my “Creamy” Cauliflower and Leek Soup (pictured at top).
I haven’t made this soup in a while and was happy it was as delicious and comforting as I remembered it. The leeks give it a nice earthy backbone, and browning the cauliflower first before simmering also adds flavor. This time I fried a generous amount of sliced leeks for the garnish, which I highly recommend. (More cauliflower recipes below.)
🧄 Winter Whites: Leeks for the Win
To me, January is “winter white” season when it comes to produce, and leeks and cauliflower are top of the list. (Hence the soup!) When I first arrived on the Vineyard, I’d never seen anything like the three-foot long leeks that Morning Glory grows. I still think they’re amazing, not only because they’re beautiful but because you can use such a high proportion of the vegetable. (Freeze those green tops for stock.)
Leeks are the backbone of so many good soups, including this perennially loved Tomato-Ginger Bisque. Garnish that with Rustic Croutons or serve with a Custom Grilled Cheese with Vineyard Bread.
And more proof of leeks’ flavor-building prowess: Tuscan Kale, Leek, and White Bean Soup with Bacon, Parmigiano & Rustic Croutons and Leek, Fennel, and Carrot Soup with Ginger and Coriander, which doubles as a spring or summer soup and can be served cold, too.
And leeks are the star ingredient in my favorite savory tart (baby sister to quiche): Caramelized Leek Tart with Blue Cheese, Bacon & Thyme. You can also use store-bought puff pastry to make mini appetizers from this recipe.
🔪TIP
To clean leeks, slice them first and then submerge them in tepid water. Leave for 15 to 20 minutes. Lift them out of the water to leave the grit behind and add them to your cooking pan without drying. The residual water will help start to cook the leeks before they soften and brown.
🥗 Cauliflower in curries, gratins, salads, pickles, puffy pancakes and more
Cauliflower is ridiculously versatile. If you’re in the mood for roasting, you can cut the cauliflower into thick steaks and make Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Smoky Tomato Rub.
Or you could cut florets, make Rosemary-Roasted Cauliflower, Lemons, and Shallots, and turn that into a warm salad.
For a vegetarian supper, tuck a batch of Sautéed Spiced Cauliflower and Shallot Topping or Filling into a just-out-of-the-oven savory Puffy Oven Pancake.
Or go the coconut-curry route (our favorite) with Cauliflower Coconut Curry with Chickpeas, Spinach, and Tomatoes.
And cauliflower isn’t done with soup yet! Include it in a batch of Build-Your-Own Ramenesque Noodle Soup. Make a batch of Rich Vegetable Broth for that.
Or make Joe Yonan’s incredible Red Lentil Ful With Sumac-Roasted Cauliflower.
Who says January eating is blah? Nah.
Happy cooking and eating! If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll find us back in your inbox next week. If you’re a free subscriber, remember you won’t get a newsletter until the first week of February unless you choose to upgrade.
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— Susie Middleton
👩🏽🍳 Food Events On the Island This Week
Need to know which restaurants and food shops are open? Check out What’s Open on Martha’s Vineyard.
Ghost Island Farm’s farm stand reopens after a two-week break on Saturday, January 6. Grey Barn’s farm stand reopens tomorrow, Thursday, January 4, after their holiday break.
Morning Glory Farm’s annual sale is happening this weekend, Friday, January 5 – Sunday, January 7. They’ve also extended special prices on their CSA shares until January 7. They offer three CSAs – a bread share, a farm produce share, and a flower share.
Chef Charlie Granquist teaches Cooking Basics for Kids this coming Tuesday, January 9, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., at Slough Farm.
Teri Culetto (aka the Vineyard Baker) is teaching a series of artisanal bread making classes at The FARM Institute this winter. Her classes are very popular and this weekend’s English muffin class is already full. Plan ahead and register for her ciabatta class on January 20 or for one or all of the others. Pre-registration required.
Photos: Red Lentil Ful by Aubrie Pick; all others Susie Middleton
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Today was a perfect day to cook soup.Making soup from whatever I had at hand was so pleasurable, I decided to write it down. Bet I wasn't the only one whose thoughts turned to soup today........Note to self: Buy cauliflower this week to try some of Susie's terrific suggestions.....
It is sleeting now and I am making soup.
I am making soup out of nothing, my favorite kind. I find a leftover knob of onion, chop it and add it to a small pan with olive oil. Too much oil, I think, as it glugs out of the bottle. Yes, but: my soup will be richer and more viscous for it: Better. I put in chopped broccoli rabe, the last of a bunch; the fibrous bits of stalk go in first, the flower heads are saved for later. A small tray of cherry tomatoes, picked from the garden in late November – November!-- has been ripening on my counter. Hard little green tomatoes, I wondered if they’d ever come to anything. They are red now, a month or more later. I split some of them in half and add them to the pan to soften, with salt and pepper, and look for herbs. I crumble in some friable needles from a sprig of rosemary, dried in summer, and tear up a basil leaf from a cutting, rooted in a glass of water, perched on the windowsill. The sleet, I see, has turned into snow. Now water goes into my soup pot, and a piece of Parmesan rind, and the soup burbles quietly while outside the snow is thickening, coming down in big fat flakes. I taste the soup. The broth tastes of tomato with a sharp tang, reminding me of tomatillos in pozole, and how their sourness plays off the comforting starch of hominy. I reach into a box of macaroni, grab a handful and add macaroni to the soup pot, along with the broccoli rabe flowers, saved for last. There, now my nothing soup is beginning to taste like something. I look for a nice wide soup mug , rinse it with boiling water to take off the chill, fish the Parmesan rind from the broth and plane fresh cheese for strewing on top. It is snowing outside and I am inside eating soup, made from nothing, my favorite kind.
Yea to Soup!! Can’t wait to try a few of these 🙏