Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower Soup

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower Soup

The world’s most instagramable vegetable: “Brassica Oleracea” the Romanesco Cauliflower. Sometimes called Romanesco Broccoli Roman cauliflower, Broccolo Romanesco, Romanesque cauliflower or simply Romanesco, or sometimes Broccoflower. In my mother’s house it has always been Romanesco Caulifower.

This vegetable is one of the finest examples of the natural occurrences of the Fibonacci spiral. The florets form a spiral on the head. Each floret has spikes that form a spiral, and each spike has mini spikes on it in a spiral pattern. Brassica-ception. This vegetable may have a delicate taste, but it is truly beautiful.

And it makes a lovely soup. I’ve been feeling rather under the weather lately; a combination of the busiest and most stressful time of the year at work, over time, and then being run down and hit by some sort of virus that’s got into my muscles and makes everything ache.

So, what do I do when I’m under the weather? Make soup. Easy, healthy, good for the body and soul; recuperation food.

The recipe is very simple, it has to be simple when you’d rather be in bed.

You chop the veg, roast it, blitz it in a blender with water/ stock, heath through in a pan. Et voila, soup.

This made enough for 3 people as a main. Prep in about 15 mins for veg to oven, and 15 mins from oven to bowl. Roast for about 45 minutes.

1 head of Romanesco, or a regular cauliflower will do just as well
3 white onions
1 head of garlic (you won’t use the entire head, but if you’re going to roast garlic, you may as well roast a whole head and save the rest for later)
5 tablespoons oil (I use rapeseed or sunflower, as they have a higher smoking point than olive oil for roasting the veg)
2 teaspoons ras-el-hanout
1 teaspoon chili flakes
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste.
Water/ stock. This is a bit play-it-by-ear. Add a little at a time till you get the consistency you want. You can use chicken or vegetable stock, if you want to keep it vegetarian/ vegan friendly

Pre heat oven to 200℃ fan oven 390℉ gas mark 6
Chop cauliflower into equal sized pieces.
Peel and quarter the onion
Put the cauliflower and onion in a bowl, drizzle with oil, sprinkle the spices over, season and mix all together to give the veg an even coating of flavour.
Cut the top of the garlic and drizzle oil over the top. Don’t peel it as the outer layers will protect the garlic from the heat.
Arrange all the veg evenly on a lined baking tray.
Roast till golden, about 45 mins should do
Once the veg is done, pop it in a blender, remembering to peel off the outer layer of the onion, and squeeze the soft garlic out of its skin, I used three cloves.
I reserved a few florets to garnish the top of the soup and give a different texture.
Blitz with water till smooth, a little water at a time
Heat a little water/ stock in a pan
Pour soup into a pan to heat through, season to taste
Serve and enjoy.