A cauliflower soup with a tahini base and pomegranate topping
Soup is the perfect comfort food on cold days, and the great thing about it is that you can turn on the heating inside you with just about every veg sitting in your fridge.
The following cauliflower soup created by cook book author Anne-Katrin Weber is full of contrasts, with a wonderfully creamy, tahini-ish base met with the brilliant crunch of pomegranate seeds.
Ingredients for 4 servings:
For the soup:
1 medium cauliflower (approx. 1 kg)
1 onion
1-2 garlic cloves
2-3 potatoes (200 g)
3 tbsp olive oil
approx. 1.3 litres of vegetable stock
salt and ground black pepper
100 g tahini
1-2 tsp ras el hanout
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
For the pesto:
3-4 stalks each of dill, parsley and mint
1 clove of garlic
5 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp cashews
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp grated zest from an organic lemon
1-2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp pomegranate seeds
Preparation:
1. Start by preparing the soup. Divide the cauliflower into florets, wash and drain. Set aside a handful of smaller florets. Finely dice the onion and garlic, roughly dice the potatoes.
2. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan and sauté the diced onion until translucent. Add the garlic and cauliflower and sauté briefly. Add the potatoes, vegetable stock, a little salt and pepper, bring everything to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the cauliflower and potatoes are soft.
3. Add the tahini and ras el hanout and puree the soup with a hand blender. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4. In the meantime, wash the herbs for the pesto, shake dry and pluck the leaves. Peel the garlic. Place the herbs and garlic in a blender jug with the olive oil, cashews, cumin, lemon zest and juice and blend creating a coarse paste. Stir in the pomegranate seeds.
5. Cut the cauliflower florets set aside into slices and fry in a pan in the remaining oil until they're crispy on both sides. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Decorate the soup with the fried cauliflower and pesto before serving.
