Cauliflower Soup

Since getting home from vacation I've made a few promises to myself. The first one was to really crack down on eating healthier and making time for exercise.

 I was doing great before vacation but it's amazing what a huge step back it is to eat out and not exercise for almost three weeks. Ugh. I really can't believe how out of shape I feel.

The second promise was to really make great use of my time at home since I'll be working at the family biz full time for...well...quite a while. I wish the two promises weren't so interconnected..but they are (having barely any time to cook, clean, or relax leaves very little motivation to eat healthy and work out).

So today is my first day off since working full time again and I've done laundry, ran errands, made soup, and am currently making veggie burgers and cookies to have in the freezer for those upcoming days when we'll need them most. I'm also planning on dusting off my rarely-used slow cooker in hopes that it'll provide some amazing meals while we're both at work. Have any great slow cooker recipes? I'd love to hear about them!

So I guess the point of this story (and its relation to this tasty soup) is that today feels like a great step in the right direction and this soup is probably going to get made a lot in the next few months. It's quite quick, requires relatively few ingredients and is delicious, of course. 

Adapted from "Super Natural Everyday" by Heidi Swanson

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

2 shallots

1 yellow onion

salt

2 cloves garlic

1 large potato

3 1/2 cups stock

12 ounces of cauliflower, cut into small florets

2/3 cup finely grated old cheddar

4 teaspoons dijon mustard (if you use the mustard croutons you could use half this amount of mustard)

walnut or olive oil for drizzling

croutons*

Heat butter or oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add shallots, onion and a large pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Add potato and garlic, cover and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add stock and cauliflower and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables are cooked through. Use an immersion blender to puree. Add half the cheese and the mustard. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Serve garnished with more cheese, a drizzle of walnut or olive oil and some croutons. 

*Swanson recommends making mustard croutons, but I already had a bag of croutons lying around so I just used those. To make the mustard croutons you basically just coat some torn old bread in a mixture of olive oil, mustard and salt and bake them until golden.