Cauliflower Leek Soup - A Winter Chill Chaser

As the days grow shorter and the colder weather begins to seep through the windows and into my bones I make pot after pot of soup. This luscious cauliflower and leek soup is one of my favorites. Possessing a milder onion flavor than either white or yellow onions leeks are one of my favorite aromatics as they don't overpower the other flavors in this soup.

As a child I only ate Mom's chicken soup, tomato soup (with a grilled cheese... mmmm), and New England clam chowder. I don't recall the first time I had potato-leek soup but I do remember how magical I thought it was. After tasting that creamy, smooth, luscious soup pureed vegetable soups became some of my favorites. I distinctly recall one afternoon living in Bologna when the Mercato delle Erbe, the city's central produce market, was simply overflowing with leeks.

In my Grandmother's Kitchen

"If you know how to cook, you can cook anywhere." ~ Elsie R. Rice

Aside from her childhood home outside Liverpool, England my grandmother lived in small rented apartments her entire life. She had little storage space and even less counter space. She began her married life in a small apartment in the Bronx and was exceedingly proud of the fact that she put dinner on the table for her husband, young son and often friends of her husband every night through the Great Depression. She did it again during WWII for her now teenage son and young daughter while her husband was overseas.