The Big Glut Recipe – March

Cauliflower and leek soup with dukkah

You don’t have to travel far to make your own dukkah and get a taste of Middle Eastern spice in a simple-to-make soup that feeds eight, or freezes for when you want more. You can use hazelnuts, almonds or pistachios for the nutty ingredient.

Ingredients

• 2tbsp olive oil
• A large cauliflower roughly chopped
• 2 sticks of celery sliced
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 litres (64fl oz) good chicken stock
• 100ml (3fl oz) single cream
• For the dukkah:
• 1tsp coriander seeds
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 25g (¾ oz) sesame seeds
• 75g (2½ oz) pistachio nuts shelled, or other nuts above
• ½ tsp Malden salt  

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat and gently sauté the leeks, celery and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the cauliflower and cook for 2 minutes before pouring in the stock, bringing to the boil and then gently simmering, partially covered for 20 minutes. The vegetables should be tender. While it’s simmering you can make the dukkah. Remove the soup, let it cool for a bit, add the cream and then puree in a food mixer or you can use a blender. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and then re-heat slowly.

The dukkah is made simply by toasting the nuts, sesame seeds, coriander and cumin seeds, with some sea salt on a gentle heat in a frying pan, until the fragrance rises. Grind in a food processor or coffee grinder until crumbly. Serve the soup hot with the dukkah sprinkled over.