Cauliflower Soup (velouté) with Roquefort Cheese and Pears

Delicious and light, velvety cauliflower soup, strong and delicate at the same time. Roquefort cheese adds its powerful character without using much. Pears add their finesse but do not yell their presence in the dish! Everything is at the right dose :-)

In two words:

“Yes; to develop oneself through his passions and dreams and without any other limit than himself, whatever may happen and without remorse, this will be for me from now on the definition of Duty! ... neither kings, nor gods, will hinder me”

To Start...

difficulty easy
preparation-10'
cooking - 30′
serves - 2  

Ingredients

  • 1000ml (1Lt) of hot water
  • 1 brick of vegetable stock
  • 1 medium size onion
  • 30gr of Roquefort cheese or the French cheese Fourme d’Ambert or Stilton
  • 4 medium pears
  • ½ of a big cauliflower or 1 medium one
  • 2 teaspoons of olive oil
  • ¼ teaspoon of coarse salt or of fleur de sel
  • 10 turn mills of Kampot black pepper

Steps

  • Cut-off cauliflower florets
  • Peel, wash, and slice the onion in small dices
  • Heat-up the water
  • In a bowl, dice the vegetable brick
  • Pour the hot water and stir with the whisk to prepare the vegetable stock
  • Heat-up a medium saucepan
  • Add the chiseled onion and stir constantly to evaporate its humidity
  • Add the olive oil and stir the onions until they become a bit brown
  • Add cauliflower florets and stir
  • Add the hot vegetable stock
  • Add salt (with precaution because the stock might be already salty) and pepper
  • Put the lid on and cook at medium heat
  • Peel the pears and cut them in medium dices
  • After cooking for 15’, add the pears and stir
  • Put the lid on and cook for another 15’
  • Mix everything with a stick blender and add the cheese
  • Try to melt the cheese (cut in pieces) into the velouté by stirring in with a wooden spoon, if it does not melt, then mix everything with the stick blender
  • Taste it asap!

Tip

You should note that the bigger the pears the stronger the taste of them in the soup especially when we are using a small cauliflower. The problem is that the soup becomes a bit sweet, if you like go ahead, but if you don’t then you can cut-off the sweetness a bit by adding a strong red pepper to give some color as well. To do this I used the Espelette pepperbut you can use Cayenne pepper, from what I recall (because it’s been many years I have not eaten some) it could do the trick :) It’s up to you to test and find the right proportions for your palate ;)

To this recipe I added another French cheese called Fourme d’Ambert as an alternative to Roquefort cheese and which I tasted afterwards. It is very good as well and goes very well with pears and cauliflower :) If you can find this French cheese try it, if not try to use the British cheese Stilton which is also milder in taste that Roquefort as the Fourme d’Ambert is :) It’s up to you again to find which suits you the best according the situation you are facing or willing to face :)

o-o C'est si bon ! o-o

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