Heat soup pot. Add butter and oil and let it brown, covered (to prevent splattering), over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add cauliflower, onion, and a pinch of salt. Cook, covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
Uncover, turn heat to medium-low and add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring often.
Add lemon juice, remaining salt, parsley, and vegetable stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, or until veggies are tender.
Dish soup into oven-proof bowls or ramekins and top with toasts. Top toasts with a sprinkle of gruyère. Broil in the toaster for 5-10 minutes (in the oven broiler, broil with the door open, paying attention the whole time, it should be a much shorter amount of time).
Notes
The toasts will soak up some of the soup as they broil. If you’d rather, you could toast the bread with the cheese and place it on top of the soup right before serving. Leftover soup makes great pasta sauce.
A long long time ago (or about a year and a half ago), when I first started my blog, I asked a few people if they would be ambassadors. I told them that if they would tell people about my blog, I’d create a dish for and named after them.
Heat soup pot. Add oil. When oil is hot, add carrot and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add shallot and another pinch of salt. Cook 2 minutes more.
Add tomato paste, parsley, dijon, pepper, remaining salt, red pepper flakes, cumin, paprika, balsamic vinegar, and maple syrup. Stir and cook 2 minutes.
Add lentils and rice to pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring often.
Add stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover, reduce heat to medium and cook for 55-65 minutes, adding more stock if needed, until veggies are tender and lentils and rice are cooked.
In last 5 minutes of cooking time turn heat to low and add spinach.
I think at this time of year, the word pollen might be a bad bad word. I, for example, have sneezed approximately seventeen hundred thousand times in the past two weeks. I wonder if I’m allergic to something?!
Here’s a kind of pollen you can get into: Fennel Pollen. I told you about it in December when I’d just begun to try it out. I’m still experimenting, but so far, everything I’ve added it to I’ve liked (not to be confused with “add it to everything”).
And this week, I used it again. This time in a dip for some beets, fennel, potatoes, and carrots. Not just any beets, fennel, potatoes, and carrots though. They’re roasted. Which makes almost any vegetable about a thousand times better (and that’s saying a lot, because I like vegetables).
They’re meant to be served alongside Fennel Pollen Burgers. But, those weren’t for the show. They’re for Friday’s post, so you’ll just have to wait… If you can’t, just make the veggies twice!
Heat ovenproof skillet. Add olive oil. Add potatoes and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook covered, over medium-low or low heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.
Add asparagus, leek, and mushrooms. Cook uncovered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until the veggies are tender.
Add green garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Whisk eggs with milk, salt, pepper, and parsley. Turn heat to medium-low and add eggs to pan. Stir once. Cook for 1 minute, stir again, then cook for 3-5 minutes, or until eggs are starting to set.
Sprinkle with cheese and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the eggs are set.
Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
