Recipe Makeover: Cauliflower Soup

This week I will be making the following meals:

• Monday: Stir fry with one batch having tofu and onions and one half having chicken (to please onion hatas in the household)
• Tuesday: Shrimp & Grits with Greens. I will use my standby skrimp and grits recipe and will saute swiss chard on the side. Then I'll top the grits with the greens and the srimps. Yes, I know I misspelled "shrimp" twice in this bullet. I did so because while working at a seafood restaurant for 10 years I heard it prounounced all three ways. I also got saLmon, till-A-pee-A, maui maui, and key-babs.
• Wednesday: Cauliflower Soup. I got a head of the veggie from my produce box last week and haven't been able to decide what to make....roasted cauliflower? casserole? mashed? But soup sounds good and I found a recipe that looks great, although it needs a few healthy tweeks. And that is the subject of this post!
• Thursday: No clue...leftovers or potluck.
• Friday: Indian food at one of the best restaurants in the triangle. It's on the house as a wedding present!
  

So the recipe for cauliflower soup calls for the following:

• Broth
• Whole Milk
• Half and half
• Butter
• Sour cream
• Cauliflower
• Carrot
• Celery
• Onion
• Flour
• S&P
• Herbs

And the instructions are basically:

1. Saute the carrot, celery and onion in some butter. (Bonus points if you know what this is called.) Then add chopped cauliflower and saute. Allow to simmer.
2. Add the broth and simmer some mo'.
3. In the meantime, melt more butter in another pot. Add milk and flour to it and whisk.
   
4. Then, add half and half to this white sauce before pouring the sauce into the simmering soup pot.
5. Toss in some herbs and S&P and allow to simmer even mo'.
   
6. Finally, add sour cream to the soup.

Now, I am all for enjoying a homecooked, whole fat meal once in awhile. In general, you are still better off eating something with whole milk and cream and butter that you've made at home than you are eating out because you can control the ingredients and the portions.

But, in regards to my last post about substitutions, I thought I'd propose a recipe makeover.

Here is what I suggest to change to still make a delicious soup but that cuts some fat and calories:

• Broth --> Broth is fine or buillon or homemade stock
  
• Whole Milk --> 2% milk. It's still rich tasting but cuts out a lot of fat and calories. I wouldn't suggest skim milk, because it will make the soup more watery and you will lose some flavor and richness. I suggest local and/or organic milk if at all possible.
  
• Half and half --> Omit. Use more milk instead.
  
• Butter --> I would suggest using less butter overall. Or, you could saute the veggies in a little olive oil in the beginning and use a little butter to make the white sauce, just less than in the original recipe.
  
• Sour cream --> Plain greek yogurt will have the same taste and richness but will cut fat and calories and add protein
  
• Cauliflower --> No need to change
  
• Carrot --> Ditto
• Celery --> Ditto again
  
• Onion --> Ditto again again
  
• Flour --> I would keep this the same rather than switching to a whole wheat. You may be able to use less. But you have to use some or your sauce won't thicken.
  
• S&P --> Use sparingly or to your own taste.
  
• Herbs --> If possible, use something you grew. If not, try to find some fresh herbs at the store. But, alas! if you don't have fresh herbs at your disposal, use dried, but don't be afraid to use a good amount. Just add some, taste, add more, taste, etc until you find what you like. Most poeple don't use enough.

So I didn't do anything drastically different. But if you follow these changes, you will still produce a yummy soup. But you will have cut out a lot of saturated fat and reduced the overall caloric total.

Do you have a recipe you'd like me to makeover? Email it or comment on this post. I'll feature it on another post.

Dorky math sidenote:
Check out the picture. Note how it is almost a pentagon in outline. Look closer and you can see a center point, where the florets are smallest. Look again, and you will see the florets are organized in spirals around this center in both directions. How many spirals are there in each direction?

Take a look at a cauliflower next time you're preparing one:

1. Count the number of florets in the spirals on your cauliflower. The number in one direction and in the other will be Fibonacci numbers.
   
2. Take a closer look at a single floret (break one off near the base of your cauliflower). It is a mini cauliflower with its own little florets all arranged in spirals around a center.
   If you can, count the spirals in both directions. How many are there?

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...