Roasted cauliflower curry soup
Curry-roasted cauliflower simmered with coconut milk and chickpeas and mashed until thick, like a creamy curry you eat with a spoon.
- 55 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.13 a serving
- 470 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 lime, juiced
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1¼ tsp salt, divided
Each serving has about 470 calories, 13 g protein, 38 g carbs and 33 g fat, and costs about $3.13 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No coconut milk? Light coconut milk works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 425°F.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Cut the cauliflower into small florets and the onion.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
the garlic and the ginger.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Grate. Grating means rubbing food across the holes of a grater to make fine shreds or flakes. It spreads cheese, garlic or ginger evenly through a dish so it melts right in.
How you’ll know: Even shreds fall off the back of the grater, and you stop while the piece is still big enough to hold.
Toss the cauliflower and onion on a large with 2 tablespoons of the oil, the curry powder, turmeric and 1 teaspoon of the salt until everything is yellow.
Sheet pan. A sheet pan is a flat metal baking tray with a low rim all the way around. The rim catches juices, and the wide surface lets food spread out and brown.
How you’ll know: Everything fits in one layer with a little space between the pieces.
for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring once, until the cauliflower is tender and at the edges.
Roast. Roasting means cooking in a hot oven, around 400°F to 450°F, usually spread out on a sheet pan. The dry heat browns the outside and brings out sweetness, especially in vegetables.
How you’ll know: The edges are browned and a little crisp, and a fork slides easily into the thickest piece.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Timer: 27 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Give the florets room. Crowded cauliflower steams and stays pale instead of browning.Heat the rest of the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir for 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Add the roasted cauliflower and onion, the broth, coconut milk and chickpeas, and cook for 10 minutes.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 10 min
Mash about half the cauliflower right in the pot with a potato masher so the soup turns thick and creamy.
Dolly’s tip: Leave plenty of chunks. You want a creamy base with bites of cauliflower in it.Stir in the spinach until it , about 1 minute, then turn off the heat and add the lime juice.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Low heatTimer: 1 min
Taste, add the last of salt if it needs it, and serve with cilantro on top.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
