Recipe Review: Spicy Cauliflower & Jalapeño Soup

Trying somethin new here on my site as it feels so amazing to discover new recipes here on WP from fellow bloggers that I follow that I wanted to pay it forward once I’ve tried them and loved them.

Still debating how to handle those recipes which don’t fall into this 5 star category so for now since this is my maiden voyage doing a review I’ll figure out that other part later and continue with my 5 star rating of this amazing soup.

I planned on making this recipe on Monday however the grocery store I went to was plumb out of cauliflower. I even went all the way to the back of the store to see if they had more in storage; no luck. Who runs out of cauliflower?

So I picked up a lovely creamy white head yesterday while shopping at the Grocery Outlet; one of my all-time favorite shops.

I did not take any pictures of the cooking process during my go at this soup as the Soupy did a perfect job of that and have decided instead to include the pic from its creator at The Soupy Stovetop, crediting her as well as a link back to her blog where the recipe in full can be found.

“The most amazingly delicious creamy vege soup of this new-year for me. Compliments of:
https://thesoupystovetop.wordpress.com/

This Spicy Cauliflower & Jalapeno Soup (<= recipe link) earned 5 stars from me and the man.

THE most important part of this soup for me is that the man ate it all & went back for seconds!

It should be duly noted that he despises cauliflower with a passion no matter how I try to mask it in dishes he always detects it leaving me sitting there like a kid who just got caught stealing silently looking at anything but him as he shoots me the usual silent sardonic look that says: “Really?  You just had to try it one more time?”

I don’t think he ever recovered from my low-carb cauliflower pizza crust and has refused to eat it since.

However last evening during the cooking process he continued to ask me what I was making constantly saying how delicious it smelled and that he couldn’t wait to try it.  Not being of the lying nature I told him a creamy spicy Jalapeno cheesy soup and left it at that.

That satisfied him enough to stay out of the kitchen for the following hour allowing me to work with the cauliflower roast it and get it into the stockpot before he discovered my secret plan of attack.

After he was all done eating the new soup and approached me raving about it asking what was in it I broke the news to him about the cauliflowers presence.

Surprisingly he wasn’t at all pissy about the intel but instead informed me that if cauliflower would always taste like “that” he wouldn’t have a problem eating it and would eat more of it.

I shall next be trying this sneak attack of how to get vegetables into my pack of humans on our 11-year-old beloved Taurus daughter as she shares her fathers dislike of cauliflower too.

Unless you have a hater of vegetables who you’re hell-bent on converting the blissful delight that comes from this situation where they will eat it is unexplainable.

For now between the two of us there’s less than 1.5 cups left of the soup which he is saving for his dinner tonight.

SCORE 1 point for the vegetable sneaker of the group!

This rich, creamy super easy to make soup only has a handful of ingredients including fresh Jalapeno’s which kicked the heat up to a solid 6 for me as I can handle Habanero’s extremely well despite the fact that the man is a Mexican and I’m a Portuguese mix of several whiter people’s ethnicities I am the heat seeker in this house.  Just sayin.

I used 2 super-sized big as I could find fresh Jalapeno’s & kept the seeds & membranes using the entire Chile sans the stem.

This recipe is also low carb and vegetarian too which also grabbed my attention.  Although not a vegetarian I am a low-carber.  I followed the recipe nearly to a T however did add a bit more sharp cheddar cheese and added butter into our batch as that’s my personal preference as the more buttery, creamy fatty goodness I can add to a dish the better.

That’s the beauty with cooking; the flexibility to tweak ingredients to your own particular desires but you first need a solid recipe to begin with; this recipe nails it to the wall.

However I will say the recipe as written is a solid 5. The roasting of the cauliflower & the garlic cloves gave it a complex depth of flavor leaving one to wonder exactly where these flavor levels are coming from.

I love that!

Here’s the only thing I did differently:

I added 1/2 a stick of Sweet Cream Salted Butter to the olive oil in order to sauté the vegetables.

I added a total of 2 cups of Sharp Cheddar Cheese.

What I will try in it next time as if it can’t possibly get any better than it already is, is bacon.  Next time I will be frying some minced bacon and adding the crispy pieces at the very end. I think that’s the thing I love about this soup recipe the most: It’s so versatile allowing you to make it as is or be playful with it trying new foods to add to it as it’s already so perfect!

It’s made with the freshest of ingredients, only a handful of ingredients at that, yielded the richest creamist texture, is deliciously spicy hot and satisfies you from bowl to stomach.

I’m really enjoying the Soupy Stovetop’s recipes and this one right here has made it into the ‘keeper’ bin and that comes straight from the man who hates cauliflower.

😉