Cauliflower and asparagus soup

Cauliflower gets everywhere it seems. This soup wasn't an "oh let's get a cauliflower and use it to make a soup". More like an "Oh dear we have a cauliflower lying around, now what?" We also had 1/2 an onion, about 24 oz asparagus and some other bits and pieces. They all needed to be used up, so off we went. It is pretty simple, and received another, "We can serve this to people" accolade from Madame. It could be made vegan by using water or vegetable stock. We had some home made chicken stock also lying around, so used that.

Ingredients

2T vegetable oil (any vegetable oil will do)

1/2 yellow onion sliced. No need to be precise, the blender is your friend

1 medium cauliflower, florets only.

24 oz asparagus. Cut into 1" lengths. Stalks and heads separated

2 cups stock or water

Hot sauce to taste

Pickled grapes to garnish (idea stolen from Chad Houser at Cafe Momentum)

1t per portion full fat Greek yogurt to garnish

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Coarse sea salt to finish - provides a nice crunch 

Method

In a sauce pot heat 2 T oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sweat the onions until soft. No browning please. Then add the cauliflower florets, and saute until there is a little color. Add the stock, salt, pepper and hot sauce - it will not cover the florets. Bring to a simmer, cover and turn down the heat. Cook for 12 minutes - until soft. Add the asparagus stalks, cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add the asparagus tips, cover and cook for one further minute.

Blend the soup in batches until perfectly smooth. Strain through a mesh strainer and serve garnishing each bowl with some pickled grapes and Greek yogurt. Sprinkle a little coarse salt over each bowl and serve piping hot.