Growing up, there was only a few magazines that I remember my mom reading regularly and one of them was Sunset. I remember flipping through it and often seeing cool houses and wishing I could live in one of them. Other than that, I didn’t really get what was so special about the magazine. But I was much younger then.
Fast forward to today and Sunset is one of those magazines that invokes happy feelings in me. When I see their usual cursive “Sunset” at the top of the cover of the magazine, thoughts come back to me of being a child and having issues of it in our home. I remember watching my mother read through issues of it. Honestly, it could be the worst magazine in the world, but I would probably still have happy thoughts of it because it takes me back to a my childhood.
Fortunately, it’s not the worst magazine. It’s actually one of my favorites now as an adult. Since Sunset is primarily devoted to living the western United States, it makes sense to me that it was a magazine that my mother enjoyed (we lived in California) and why I can’t find it on newstands now (not living in California). But, I am a subscriber, and of course, enjoying the more modern advances of the magazine such as their website and tweets on Twitter.
This week I decided to try a new recipe I found – Creamy Cauliflower Soup – which I adapted from a recipe found in the January 2009 issue of Sunset. What I liked about this recipe was that it was lighter than other Cauliflower Soup recipes that I had found that called for cream. This one actually uses no cream and is low in calories and fat. Here’s how I made it:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup Marsala cooking wine (original recipe calls for dry white wine)
- 1 large head cauliflower, chopped
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon Italian parsley, finely chopped
- Salt & Pepper (optional)
In a large pot, heat the olive oil and saute the onion until tender. Add garlic and cooking wine and cook until most of the liquid is evaporated. Add cauliflower and broth to pot with onion mixture. Bring to a boil; turn down heat to medium and simmer for approximately 25 – 30 minutes, or until the cauliflower is very soft.
Using a measuring cup or ladle, put some of the soup mixture into a blender. Pulse until very smooth. Pour pureed mixture into another pot or bowl. Repeat with remainder of soup – it will probably take 2 – 3 batches to puree it all.
Our family likes soups with a bit of texture in them, so I purposely didn’t puree all of the cauliflower pieces. I left approximately 1 cup of the soup mixture more “chunky”. Once all the batches have been pureed and combined, stir in parsley.
The end result is a bowl of creamy goodness! I should mention that I used Marsala cooking wine, rather than the dry white wine that the recipe calls for because that was all I had on hand. So, not only did this give a different taste to the soup, it gave it a slightly different color than I think it would if I had used white wine. We topped the soup with shredded cheddar cheese and sliced green onions (optional, of course). Enjoy!
Jennie says
Yay! A cauliflower soup with no cream! Yet it still looks wonderfully creamy! Thanks for sharing this. 🙂