Moomins Summertime Cauliflower Soup

I went to Finland earlier this year, home to the Moomins - characters from a series of children's books by a Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer. The books were quite well known in the UK when I was a child, but they are obviously a much bigger deal in Finland- the small town we were staying near had a souvenir shop full of Moomin paraphernalia and the planes of the Finnish national airline even have pictures of Moomins on the tail wings.

After our trip I happened to need a new thermos flask and found a really cute Moomin flask on Ebay (see photo above). I also came across a Moomins cookery book and hinted to my boyfriend I would like it for my birthday... he duly obliged and bought me a cuddly Moomin toy as well! The other item in the picture below is a packet of Moomin tea I found in the supermarket. I'm pretty sure no Moomins were harmed in the making of it...

The first thing I made from the recipe book - which is beautifully illustrated- was "summertime cauliflower soup".

You need:
1 head cauliflower
1 small onion
1 tbsp oil
1 litre water
2 vegetable stock cubes
120g cheese
100ml cream
3 tbsp cornflour
1 clove garlic
salt, pepper
parsley to garnish

Chop the onion and crush the garlic and fry until softened

Break the cauliflower into florets and bring to the boil in the water flavoured with the stock cubes.

Chop up some cheese - I used cheddar with black pepper as I had some that needed using up, but you could use blue cheese or even soft cheese.

When the cauliflower is tender, add the cheese and stir until melted

Whisk the cornflour into the cream

Add to the saucepan, stir and simmer

You will have a soup with soft pieces of cauliflower; if you prefer you can blitz it in a blender until smooth.

Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley to serve

This was a delicious soup, though I would say it is more a winter than a summer dish! It tasted a lot like cauliflower cheese which is something I associate more with roast dinners. I think next time I would puree the soup though it was quite nice leaving it thick as well.

This is also a very cheap dish to make and is very filling, so I'm sending it to Credit Crunch Munch, a frugal food challenge hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All. This month it is hosted by Anneli at Delicieux.