Roasted Cauliflower and Potato Soup

Let me start off by saying the cauliflower is not one of my all time favorite vegetables.....until I discovered roasting it. Roasted cauliflower takes on a whole new flavor that is pretty tasty.

I had family coming to visit on Monday just in time for lunch. I had about 2 hours to figure out what I was going to do, AND go to the grocery store! I had a beautiful head cauliflower in the fridge that I had just bought at farmer's market the day before, and one potato that was just waiting to be used. So, cauliflower soup is now on the menu! I accompanied the soup with BLAT's (minus the bacon for moi) and some nice vino. Everyone loved this soup. It's one of my favorites : ) I must warn you, it is very filling. It could easily stand on it's own as a meal, so if you are serving more food with it, go easy on the serving size. I could only eat half of my sandwich.

You will be seeing many more thick soup recipes coming your way as the weather starts to get chilly. I LOVE SOUP!

Ingredients
2 Tb. olive oil
2 Tb butter
3 leeks cut into 1 inch pieces
1 head of cauliflower
1 scrubbed russet potato, cubed (you can peel them, but all the nutrients are in the skin and I like the texture and color you get from the skin. It all gets pureed anyway).
1/2 cup any white bean
3 cloves of garlic
6-7 cups of veggie broth depending on how thick you like your soup!
salt and pepper
1 Tb. chopped fresh herbs for garnish such as thyme, parsley, basil, chives or tarragon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400

Lightly coat cauliflower and potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 45 minutes.

Saute olive oil, butter, leeks and garlic on medium heat until soft (about 10 mins)

Add vegetables, beans and broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. (though I ran out of time and only boiled it for about 5-10 minutes before blending. It turned out fine, but I would have rather simmered the ingredients a bit longer.

When done, use a hand blender or transfer to a food processor or blender to puree the soup to desired consistency. I like mine just a little chunky to have some texture.

Garnish with your fresh herbs, and serve hot.