All of a sudden I am very very into cauliflower. I think what happened was I started roasting it for dinner and had left over roasted cauliflower because you know Joel wasn’t eating it. I decided to do something with the leftover cauliflower and I made this delicious Roasted Cauliflower Soup, which lo and behold Joel ate! and enjoyed! It’s really pretty easy , and rather tasty. It comes up a light brown color because the cauliflower is roasted first. I did put a little pancetta on top to entice Joel but you can absolutely leave it out , it’s totally not necessary . You can top it with sliced toasted almonds as well if you’d like and a little flat leaf parsley, just to add color. 
Ingredients:
1 large head of caulflower , broken up into florets
4 teaspoons olive oil plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided in 1/2
3/4 cup chopped yellow onion, about 1/2 of a large onion
4 garlic cloves, chopped
4 cups Chicken Stock, you can keep it vegetarian and use Vegetable Stock
1 cup water
1/2 cup half and half or 1/2 cup milk , you need a little cream here
* 2 ounces pancetta chopped , this is optional , I had it so I added it , totally unnecessary
* couple of tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted for garnish
* flat leaf parsley , chopped up for garnish as well, I skipped this because I didn’t have any on hand
Directions:
Roasted Cauliflower:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place cauliflower in a large bowl, drizzle with 4 teaspoons of olive oil, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Toss to coat the cauliflower. Arrange in a single layer on a jelly roll pan ( cookie sheet with rim) that’s been sprayed with Pam. Bake cauliflower at 450 degrees for app. 40 minutes or until tender and browned, stirring once after first 1/2 hour. By the way this is how I serve my cauliflower with dinner most of the time. It’s wonderful.
Heat a large Dutch oven ( Le Creuset) over medium heat. Coat pan with Pam first. If you’re going to cook pancetta , cook it now. Cook until crisp and remove it, drain it on paper towels and save till later. Melt 1 1/2 teaspoons butter in pan, I also put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in at this time. Add onion and garlic saute for app. 5 minutes till softened and onion is translucent, stir occasionally. Add cauliflower, stock and 1 cup of water, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in half and half . I then took out my immersion blender stick and blended it all together, at this point add in other 1 1/2 teaspoon butter. If you don’t have an immersion stick and don’t feel like buying one use your blender in batches. Blend until smooth. I sprinkled with chopped cooked pancetta, use whatever you like or nothing at all. A nice crusty bread is very nice served alongside this soup. This soup is great served for lunch or dinner with a beautiful salad.
*serves 4 people nicely
