Cauliflower Soup

I woke up today with every muscle group still sore, so I decided to move my off day from Sunday to Saturday this week. This means I have to make time to go to the gym tomorrow and abuse myself as I normally do on Saturdays.

Today was spent largely watching the baby, allowing my wife time to work out and do family things. It was chilly here after a violent storm rolled through last night - not good times if you're a skittish Chihuahua. We also watched a little basketball - I love the NCAA tournament. Didn't do a darn thing to get healthier other than get some much needed rest, unless you count bjorning the baby around the grocery store for half an hour, which was awesome.

Tonight's dinner was a little experimental. Okay, every dinner is experimental around here, but I mention this fact because I tried something that didn't exactly work tonight. So I'll eliminate it from the menu recap in an effort to vindicate myself and re-write culinary history to reflect my actions in a more favorable manner. Hey, my blog, my rules.

Cauliflower soup:

1 huge head of cauliflower (200 calories)

4 cups stock (40 calories)

1 tsp oil (40 calories)

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 medium onion (20 calories)

splash sherry

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 fresh wasabi root, grated (sub 1 tbsp horseradish)

1 tbsp agave nectar (60 calories)

Salt and pepper to taste

Slice and carmelize onion in the oil, and add fennel seeds toward the end to toast them. Deglace with a splash of sherry. Add stock and roughly cut cauliflower, and boil until tender and the liquid has reduced some. Puree until smooth with immersion blender, and finish with vinegar, wasabi, agave, salt, and pepper as needed to achieve the correct taste. 180 calories for an enormous bowl.

I added some pan fried parsnips to this for texture, but they were all wrong, so don't do that. If you want to add some crispy bacon bits at the end, who am I to judge?

I served this with veal cutlets (1/2 pound serving = 240 calories). Pan fried them in a teaspoon of oil, and then made a pan sauce with some shallots, sherry, milk, paprika, and fresh nutmeg. Probably added 50 calories.

It's a thin meal calorically without the parsnips, so if you're replicating, serve a potato or something on the side.