Once you start cooking yourself, your perspective towards certain ingredients change a lot.

My relationship with onions for example has been like those relationships on my favourite TV show Glee; one of love, hate and then love again. Mom tells me I used to crawl to the produce basket in the kitchen, steal an onion and chomp on it until mom finds me in tears with that onion in my little hands. I grew up to find myself removing onions from food. Large pieces of onions in dishes like tabbouleh and mjadara used to annoy me and I used to move them to one side. Up until I started working at Burger King in 2006, onions have been my enemy. It didn’t take much until that changed. Rounds of onions sneaked their way into my burgers, then into my cooking and now their smell is on my fingers. Ever since I started cooking, I have loved using onions; raw or cooked. I get a little hesitant when I have onions from mom’s cooking but never when it’s mine.

Similarly, cauliflower has been, and still is, a produce I can’t stand the smell of. I’m fine with having raw cauliflower with the vegetable plate dipped in cocktail sauce but the smell of boiled cauliflower annoys me. Nowadays since I am trying to incorporate as much vegetables as I can in my diet I am trying to find a way to like the vegetables I don’t eat. One was my coriander and garlic roasted vegetables, other times with pasta and chicken, others in soup.

Yesterday, despite starting to go down with the flu, I felt adventurous with the head of cauliflower resting in the refrigerator. During this cold weather, I have been making a soup EVERY Sunday for the family lunch I have been in charge of for the past month. I said to myself, why make this Sunday different. Let’s make a soup.

I usually tend to stay away from fatty additions as much as possible and whenever it is avoidable. I also try not to use nasty substitutes. When butter is a must, I use it but I try to stay away from excessive use of fats. Today’s recipe is simple, easy, light and VEGAN with no substitutes. Try it as a warm dish in this cold weather.

Vegan Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 onion (thinly sliced)
• 1 large cauliflower head (divided into florets)
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper and ground nutmeg
• Water
• Corn starch (optional, only if you like to thicken your soup)

Procedure

• Blanch the cauliflower; boil a pot of salted water and add the cauliflower. Drain after about 5 minutes and set aside. This process removes the elements that make you get gassy
• Saute the onion in olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and add 1 teaspoon salt
• Add the cauliflowers and add 5-6 cups of water (more or less according to the amount of cauliflower), bring to a boil then simmer for 25 minutes
• Cool slightly and blend in batches or use an immersion blender and blend it all
• Add salt, pepper and nutmeg and mix. Adjust to taste
• Boil until the soup thickens
• Ladle into soup bowls, drizzle with good quality olive oil and serve with homemade croutons

P.S. If the soup is too thick, add more water. If the soup is too runny for your taste, mix a 2 tablespoons of corn starch in cold water, mix into the soup and bring to w boil till it thickens

Enjoy