CrustyCrab
Recipes

AmericanPotato and cauliflower

Roasted Garlic Cream of Potato Soup

A big pot of chunky Yukon gold soup with roasted garlic, where blended cauliflower does the work of the cream and a small splash rounds it out.

Calories
485kcal
Protein
15g
Carbs
58g
Fat
22g
Total, 40 min active
1 hr 30min
Servings
8

Nutrition is per serving.

Ingredients

Roasted garlic

  • 4 whole heads garlic
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Pinch of salt

Soup

  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 2 large onions or leeks, diced
  • About 4 lb Yukon gold potatoes, in 1½ in dice, skins on
  • 2 small heads cauliflower (8–10 cups florets)
  • 8–10 cups vegetable or chicken stock, warm
  • 2 tsp dried thyme, or several fresh sprigs
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • About ½ cup heavy cream
  • 1½ cups grated sharp cheddar (optional)
  • Kosher salt

To finish

  • Chives or green onion, extra cheddar, cracked pepper and hot sauce

Steps

  1. Roast the garlic. Heat the oven to 400°F. Slice ¼ in off the tops of the garlic heads to expose the cloves, set them on foil, drizzle with the oil and a pinch of salt, wrap, and roast 35–45 minutes, until soft and golden. Squeeze out the cloves once cool enough to handle.
  2. Sweat the onions. Melt the butter in a 6–8 qt pot over medium-low and cook the onions until soft and translucent, 8–10 minutes, without browning.
  3. Simmer. Add the potatoes, cauliflower, warm stock, thyme and white pepper. Simmer until both are fork-tender, about 25 minutes at this volume.
  4. Reserve the chunks. Scoop out about half the potato, roughly 2 lb, and set it aside; these stay whole for texture.
  5. Blend the base. Squeeze in the roasted garlic and blend the rest of the pot smooth with an immersion blender, working all around the pot.
  6. Bring it together. Stir the reserved potato back in, then the cream and the cheddar, if using, until melted. Season hard with salt; a pot this size needs more than you’d think, so taste and keep going.
  7. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with chives, extra cheddar, cracked pepper and hot sauce.

Notes

  • Cauliflower as the cream: simmered and blended, it turns neutral and silky and gives the soup a heavy-cream body without turning gluey the way over-blended potato does. Don’t roast it; roasted cauliflower blends grainy.
  • Yukon golds are buttery and lower in starch, so the chunks hold their shape and the thin skins can stay on.
  • Lighter or richer: skip the cheese and lean on the cauliflower, or add a little more cheddar.
  • At high altitude (around 5,000 ft): the vegetables take a little longer to turn fork-tender and the pot loses more liquid, so keep extra warm stock on hand and go by feel, not the clock.