Spring Soup: Cauliflower Leek

I hope this finds you well. I'm well here. However the days have been full. For the first time in a couple years, all 3 children are playing ball at the same time. Also, our homeschooling year ended eventful with projects, recitations, skits and presentations with our rural community co-op families. It was fun to take in all the good work. Further, each of our children has a little bit more personal work to finish before summer break officially begins for us, but the end is so close. In many ways, it really has been a beautiful, blessed school year of community, trying new challenges, learning and achieving in the midst of our national and world concerns. So grateful.

Spring is in full force here in Colorado. I'm loving the precipitation (snow or rain), however it wants to come down. The land is coming alive with GREEN, blooms, singing birds, dashing rabbits, puffed up wild turkeys, beautiful deer and pronghorns peacefully grazing.

In celebration of spring, I want to share a personal favorite healing soup that all our children enjoy, too. With just the spring produce of cauliflower and leeks, plus a few other simple ingredients, it is the most wonderful, comforting, healing hug-in-a-bowl. Enjoy cauliflower leek soup!

Ingredients:

2 tsp ghee, avocado or grapeseed oil

1 head of cauliflower

1 leek

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 tsp dried basil or Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. While it warms, chop the white part of the leek into 1-inch pieces. Sauté the leek in the oil for 5 minutes, until soft. Add cauliflower, broth, dried herbs and salt to the saucepan and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, until cauliflower is soft. Remove from heat and puree the soup, right in the saucepan, with an immersion hand blender until smooth. For carafe blenders, let everything sit for about 5-10 minutes to cool before transferring the contents of the saucepan into the carafe. Begin blending on low and increase speed until smooth. Transfer to bowls. Drizzle with a little ghee if you'd like. Enjoy!

Yields: 2 servings

*This recipe is tweaked slightly from Kate O'Donnell's The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook, a beautiful healing companion.