The days are darker, colder, wetter. You need to head to work or the library and you haven’t made any food so you shove together a sandwich. For the 4th day in a row. Not anymore! This soup takes 30 minutes, and is perfect for making in advance to store in tupperware to take with you and reheat on the day, It’s the perfect dish for this busy time of year.

All the ingredients can be bought at Lidl, except from the chestnuts which I had to go to the big Tesco to get (a nice wee walk break). The recipe has been adapted from a BBC good food article in one of last years autumn magazines and fed me 5 big portions.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons (tbsp) of olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large cauliflower, cut into chunks

250ml of milk (semi-skimmed or whole)

850ml vegetables stock (pre made or cubes)

150ml double cream

Salt and pepper for seasoning

200g pack vacuum-packed chestnuts, roughly chopped

25g parmesan, shaved, to serve

 

 

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a LARGE saucepan on a gentle/low heat. Add the onion and heat for about 8-10 minutes until softened.
2. Add the cauliflower, milk and stock. Turn up the heat to medium and bring the soup to a simmer. Cook at this heat for 10-15 minutes (depends on how good your hob is) until the cauliflower is tender.

 

 

3. Add the cream, season well and bring the soup  to a boil. Once it reaches the boil, remove your pan from the heat and add the chestnuts.

4. Next you want to blend your soup.

I blend mine by pouring about 400ml at a time into my juicer because I do not have a hand-held blender. If you are pouring your soup into a juicer, transfer it from your saucepan to your tupperware pots first, for 5 minutes to allow the soup to cool. This also allows you to set your serving sizes before you blend.

Once you’ve blended the soup and popped it back into the tupperware pots, make sure you leave the lids off the tupperware until the soup has cooled completely, then you can lid the dish and place your portions in the freezer or fridge.

Remember to get a portion out the night before you need it and by morning it’s good to go! Either heat it up before you leave and pour it into a thermos to keep warm for the day, or if where you’re going has a microwave, just take the tupperware with you and heat it up in that.

I hope you enjoy this soup as much as I did. I’d like to say I don’t even particularly like cauliflower, and yet I found this soup delicious. The chestnuts add a lovely taste, and because the soup is so creamy, the cauliflower is not overpowering.