black-eyed pea & zipper cream recipes

It's time for a new recipe post! This one is black-eyed pea croquettes from Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet.

Black-eyed peas are in season! I never used to be a huge fan of them (I love the band, though!) but well the story goes... first I saw these "zipper cream peas" in the store a couple weeks back, and I was like, what the heck is that? Naturally I had to buy them. They were in the produce and setting on the shelf next to black-eyed peas - both sold in a bag for like $2 a piece. I bought the zipper creams and proceeded to google recipes. I found a "Soup Pasta Escarole and Zipper Cream Pea Casserole" recipe though after making it, it was very tasty but didn't seem casserole-ish to me, since there was no cheese or no substance holding the peas all sort of together. It was like peas and some other stuff baked in a dish. I modified some of the ingredients too, so maybe that made a difference. Some of the ingredients included escarole, Kashi 7-whole grain pilaf (I used this instead of pasta because I was making it macrobiotic), and chopped veggies - onions, carrots, scallions, garlic. The Kashi stuff is soooo good! The final product! I am just going to link to the recipe, rather than typing it up here, because it's kind of long! While it was good (I liked the zipper creams) I don't think making it into a casserole was worth it because it took too long for something that really wasn't all that casserole-like. I think it would have been just as tasty to stir-fry the veggies, cook the peas and rice/pilaf and toss it all together sans baking.
Next here is the recipe for black-eyed pea croquettes. You can certainly do this with zipper creams too, since they are very similar.

2 cups black-eyed peas, soaked overnight in water to cover
2 Tbl chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 Tbl shoyu (shoyu is Japanese for soy sauce - a higher quality soy sauce technically)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups safflower oil for frying (I used olive oil, and I only put about 1" in the pan not 2 cups!)

Dipping sauce
½ cup barley malt syrup or rice syrup
1 tbl Dijon mustard
Drain the soaked beans and transfer to a food processor. Add the parsley or cilantro, salt, shoyu, and cumin. Blend until the beans are chopped to fine shreds, but don’t blend them to a pulp. The mixture will be slightly wet but should hold together. Form the bean mixture into something between football and UFO shaped croquettes in the palms of your hands.

[Note - my mixture didn't stay together all that well, and in reading some other people's experiments with this recipe, it all depends in precisely how much water you use, and how long you mix in the Cuisinart. I probably didn't quite mix it long enough.]

Heat 1” of oil in a cast-iron skillet to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To test the oil, drop in a tiny amount of croquette mixture. If it bubbles furiously and rises to the top, the oil is ready. Do not let the oil get so hot that it smokes. You may need to make little adjustments to the heat throughout the cooking process to avoid burning the croquettes.

Place 4 croquettes in the oil and fry for about 4 minutes on each side. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the fried croquettes to a plate lined with paper towels.

To make the dipping sauce, stir together the barley malt syrup and mustard in a small saucepan. Warm the sauce until it bubbles.

Serve the croquettes while still hot. Drizzle with the dipping sauce or serve it alongside in a dipping bowl.

The photo at the top of the page is the croquettes cooking in my cast iron skillet (I bought it recently - they're cheap! - because apparently the nonstick coating on pans is really bad for you. Good ol cast iron is a trusty friend. I grew up with my dad using it, but have never had my own. Now I do.) The photo of the croquettes in the container is the final product. They were quite good - even the kids liked them. OK I take that back - Savi liked them and Sam didn't.

Zukamole and other delicious creations

Make Juice Not War! These are the ingredients for the Urban Zen Juice, one recipe I make as part of my new green juicing (apple, pepper, cucumber, romaine, kale, celery, fennel, lemon, ginger - and I threw in a kiwi for good measure)

Time for some more recipes! The Crazy Sexy Cleanse is going fantabulous. I'm on day 7, and feeling great. I gave up meat, wheat, dairy and sugar - though technically I was already mostly a vegetarian (I do not eat factory farmed meat) and eat a gluten-free because of a gluten intolerance (for those unaware, gluten is found in wheat and other grains, so that means no bread, pasta, tortillas etc unless they are made from gluten-free grains like rice, quinoa, millet or others - of which there are many).

The hardest part for me is sugar. I am a huge sugar addict! I love sweets! However, I use Stevia, a liquid no-cal sweetener that is healthy and all natural and that helps keep the sugar cravings at bay. Plus you can have fruit and that kind of thing but just not foods with "added sugar." The funny thing is that after just one week on this, yesterday, I had a sip of D's smoothie at Whole Foods that had honey in it and it tasted sooo sweet to me, and he thought it was under-sweetened and had to add some honey. In my normal life, I'd probably have thought it was not sweet enough too. And the green/veggie juices I drink daily which have very, very low sweetness are perfectly delicious to me now. I actually was using week 1 to transition slowly off sugar rather than cut it out 100% but I managed to almost totally eliminate it other than natural sugars anyway. Tomorrow starts week two so here goes ....

I wanted to share a couple of my favorite new recipes! This first one - Zukamole - is a delicious dip made from roasted zucchini and it comes from Kim O'Donnel at The Washington Post. I had bought a whole bag of these summer squash for $1 at my local grocery store and Googled to find recipes. They are labeled Calabaza Squash but when I google that it comes up wiht winter squash not summer squash but these things are essentially like zucchini in look, feel, taste except they are shorter and squattier and lighter green.


Ingredients:

3 pounds summer squash
Approximately 1/2 head garlic
1 large onion (sweet varieties preferred, i.e. Vidalia, Walla Walla)
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 cup basil and/or mint leaves
1/2 cup parsley, stemmed
2 tablespoons juice of lemon
salt and pepper to taste

(I have no idea how to know what 3 pounds is - I didn't actually weigh it - but I just used what I had. I also made it twice - once with mint, and once with basil. Both were great but I think I actually favor the mint version more. I thought I'd like the basil one more because I LOVE basil. But there ya go).

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375. Slice zucchini (or whatever summer squash you have...) in half, lengthwise. Separate garlic cloves but keep skins on. Quarter onion. Place vegetables in roasting pan and drizzle with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt. Roast until extremely tender, at least 1 hour and up to 90 minutes (This is important - the squash gets almost mushy. They were sooo good just on their own too! I've never had roasted zucchini but mmm - delish! Also note that the garlic will burn to a crisp at this length of time, so remove them at 45-60 min while the onion and squash can roast much longer).

Veggies roasting!

While vegetables are roasting, prepare herbs; pull leaves off stems and tear or chop coarsely. After removing veggies from the oven, let them cool slightly and squeeze garlic from skins. Place all vegetables into bowl of food processor and pulse. Add herbs (parsley and mint or basil). Puree until smooth. Add lemon juice and salt. Drizzle in remaining olive oil. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.

ZOMG it is soooo good! I serve it up on brown rice cakes, which are low-fat, gluten-free and vegan! It is a nice crunchy snack with a yummy topping.

Next up... Raw Kale-Avocado Salad. This one comes from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet book, but is all over the internet. It was apparently "invented" by Raw Food chef Chad Sarno. I even include a great video below by Raw Food coach Karen Knowler. Plus you get to listen to her super cute British accent.


Ingredients:
5 large handfuls of green curly kale
Sea salt
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1 green onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions: After washing and draining, chop kale into centimeter-sized pieces and place in a large bowl. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp sea salt. With your hands, massage the oil and salt into the kale until the kale is reduced, soft and shiny. Then, again using hands, massage avocado into the kale, squeezing...so that the kale is coated with avocado, but with a few small whole pieces remaining amongst the leaves. Add the lemon juice. Last, you can add any variety of vegetables to make this salad to your taste. Green onions add the perfect kick. Or you can add sun-dried tomatoes, nuts, torn spinach, or fresh tomatoes. Mix all ingredients well. Serve with a light dusting of cayenne, if desired. Yum! It should be eaten within 1-2 days because the avocado on the leaves will start to oxidize and taste funny. An alternative is to add the avocado before each serving.

Until next blogging - have a great week and eat healthy!

Wrestling with Seitan & other adventures

The other day, I found myself in the kitchen, wrestling with Seitan...
Seitan is a wheat protein-based "fake" meat (kind of like tofu is soybean curd). I have never had it, but I had bought some on sale at the grocery store to try it out! I made...drumroll please... Braised Seitan Cutlets in Mushroom and Red Wine Sauce - from Vegetarian Times Magazine. The ingredients...

1 8-oz. pkg. seitan, drained and halved into 2 thin cutlets
1 Tbs. unbleached flour
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
1/4 cup chopped parsley

NOTE: On this one I pretty much followed the recipe. The only thing different is that I used red onion because that's what I happened to have but I would really recommend a white or yellow onion. I also used a Merlot and it was a bit too strong in the sauce for my taste. I'd almost try a cooking sherry but you can experiment. I also used about 5 or 6 garlic cloves.

I love fresh vegetables! Oh that reminds me, I added a red bell pepper to the recipe in addition to the mushrooms (Baby Bellas) and the red onion and garlic.
Here are some of the ingredients I used. You can see I like to buy stuff that's on sale! The Seitan comes in plastic-sealed packs (inside the cardboard packages), and even though the package expiration date was in May, and I kept it in my fridge until... September, it was still good. I did the sniff test to make sure but it smelled fine and upon cooking tasted great! (I promise if I open an eatery I will not use expired food!) :) The stuff in the bowl on the right front is the seitan - it was pretty tasty! The silver thing on the left is my Pampered Chef garlic press, which I LOVE. In fact I love all Pampered Chef products I have ever bought. I have had a few "parties" and gotten lot sof their products - I have their cookware, which is great, their stoneware, and lots of other things. I don't sell it, but I probably should!

Directions

1. Coat seitan pieces in flour. Heat oil in large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add seitan, and cook 1 to 2 minutes on each side, pressing pieces down to brown evenly. Remove seitan from skillet, and keep warm.

2. Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic to skillet. Sauté 7 to 10 minutes, or until softened and lightly browned. Whisk together red wine, mustard, and thyme in measuring cup. Add to mushroom mixture; season with salt and pepper, if desired; and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Whisk together cornstarch and vegetable broth in same measuring cup, then add to mushroom mixture. Simmer 2 to 3 minutes, or until thickened, stirring constantly. Place seitan cutlets on plates, top with mushroom sauce, and sprinkle with parsley.

These are ingredients of the sauce - the (organic!) dijon mustard, thyme (I freeze the fresh herbs), cornstarch, vegetable broth (I use a garden veg broth bouillon cube thing) and red wine. That's a Pampered Chef cutting board which goes with the food chopper by the way!
I decided to add something small to my vision board. I have a collection of magazine clippings in a plastic baggie for use in making my journal collages, so even though I plan to do some serious magazine page browsing sometime soon, in order to really fill out my vision board, I wanted to place something on it (other than the photo of my kids, which I love, but that was already on the corkboard). I went through the clippings and the image that spoke to me most was the one of the world/globe inside the oyster. I like the imagery it represents and the marble earth is so beautiful too. I also had this tag from some pants I bought that looks like a map, and I have always been drawn to maps. It has "passport stamps" on it as well so it went on the board too.

In The Artist's Way book, Julia Cameron says that as you continue to read it and do the exercises within, as you reconnect with your creativity, you may find yourself doing new things, wearing new or slightly different clothes (or resurrecting old ones). That has happened to me again as it did in the last time I did this a couple years ago. I mentioned that I've been making changes around the house - like painting my kitchen wall yellow, painted my bathroom ceiling, etc. I also rearranged my closet to make it more spacious - and I LOVE to see the difference every time I go in there (it was quite cluttery before). In the process of rearranging the closet, I found some old skirts I hadn't worn in a long time, and I've been wearing them lately.

Related to making small but practical and helpful changes to one's life - one thing I've wanted to do for a while now is to start air-drying my clothes to save energy. I used to have a wood drying rack like this but it broke and I never replaced it. Until the other day! When I was at Target I bought this metal one.
I've used it twice now. Savie did not like the way her clothes felt all scratchy... I used to actually think that way too when my exes' mom used to dry the clothes out on the clothesline, but I have found I don't mind anymore. They smelled really good and fresh! And I'm helping the polar bears.

Speaking of polar bears, I have two articles out that I want to point out and link to. Please check them out if you can, and leave comments there. I love comments!

• My September blog post for Adventures in Climate Change went live-
  Saving Polar Bears, One Light Switch at a Time
  
  
• 9/11 Tribute Traps 10,000 Birds - This post on my weekly Animal Planet blog has already gotten over 12,000 visitors in just a couple days! It has received a lot of comments, too, which are very illuminating. By and away most people say they'd like to not have a 9/11 memorial tribute that contributes to the death of more creatures. Granted it's Animal Planet so the audience may be skewed but in the other hand many non-regular readers have gone and visited the blog since this post was Dug on Digg.com, and posted on Reddit and got Retweeted around the Tweetosphere (is that what it's called?!)

The last thing I'll mention is that tomorrow 9/16 there's a Free SARK and Marney Dream Boogie telecall *How your Inner CEO and Inner Spirit can get along* at 9pm ET - or you can get an mp3 to listen to at any time!

percolating ideas

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
Copyright (c) 2010 Wendee Holtcamp

My mind has been ripe with ideas lately. I always find that when I'm engaged in various activities, reading books, doing bible studies or other spiritual practices that it really energizes my soul and spirit and makes me feel more alive and more creative (something that sort of had died down over the past couple years). As I mentioned, I've been doing the Inner Mean Girl Cleanse and I've started re-reading The Artist's Way and doing some of the exercises within, including journaling every morning (the author, Julia Cameron, calls them morning pages).

Today I started the Beth Moore Bible study at my church, Living Beyond Yourself, which is on the Holy Spirit and specifically on the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). I was actually present when Beth filmed the video series back in 2003 so this is my second time doing the study. That was the year in which I separated from my ex, so... it's somewhat poignant being here in the same study in a completely different place. And hey I just realized you can do the study online - check out the link above, if you're interested.

I wanted to share visually some of the things that have been percolating in my mind and heart. Some of which are edible! I make these absolutely delicious protein fruit smoothies. The other day I made one I decided to name Blackberry Bliss. I use frozen fruit, whey protein powder (yum! Much better than rice protein powder which I've used before too), Almond Milk, and (sometimes) yogurt. I don't even use ice because the frozen fruit does the trick. Mango MAKES the smoothie - of any flavor. There's something about their consistency that really makes a smoothie, well, smooth. :)
One of my "ideas" - and it's not really that new but within the past year or so - is that I really would love to open a healthy eatery someday... and I would definitely serve these. I make a variety of flavors, depending on what is in my freezer, but I came up with names the other day for what I'd sell: Succulent Strawberry, Blackberry Bliss, Mango Madness...
This is the second time I've made this Spicy Tofu Lettuce Wraps recipe and it's soooo delish. I used curly leaf lettuce and I highly recommend something more substantial because they don't stay together very well this way. You can also see the awesome salad spinner I got for Christmas this year and which I love! Sam likes to spin it too... it's like a spinnie toy I guess! Anyway the recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine, and the ingredients are:

Filling
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
1 Tbs. minced lemongrass
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
1 lb. extra-firm tofu, crumbled
1 8-oz. can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
4 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
4 Tbs. hoisin sauce
1 to 2 tsp. vegetarian chile sauce, such as vegetarian sriracha
16 butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce leaves

Garnishes
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup finely chopped peanuts
Hoisin and chile sauces

* I modified it by using leeks instead of onions this time because that's what I happened to have. It was great! It was good with the onion last time too. I also used 4 instead of 2 garlic cloves (you can never use too much garlic, in my opinion!), 2 instead of 4 Tbsp of soy sauce (I actually use Bragg's liquid aminos which is kind of the same thing flavor-wise, but it's definitely not low-sodium). I had some dried lemongrass rather than fresh and that worked fine too. It's really simple to make:

Directions
1. To make Filling: Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, ginger, lemongrass, and garlic, and cook 7 to 10 minutes, or until onions are soft and beginning to brown. Add tofu and water chestnuts, breaking tofu into small crumbles; cook 4 minutes, or until heated through. Stir in soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and chile sauce. Transfer to serving bowl.

2. Place lettuce leaves on platter, and set out garnishes in small serving bowls. Wrap tofu mixture in lettuce leaves, and top with your choice of garnishes.

Another thought process coming out of all this idea-ripening is that I may start another blog just focusing on healthy eating, cooking, healthy lifestyle stuff. What should I call it? I have to have Bohemian in the title I think. The Healthy Bohemian? I will have to see if my talented daughter can help me design a blog template. She is so incredibly amazing in that department. She's redesigned her own blog about 10 times and I love them all! She's a super talented photographer, and good with the graphics design programs, is in photojournalism and yearbook in high school and well I just can't say enough good things about her. And she has an incredible passion for orphans around the world. And I have to mention my super-smart son who just started high school and who turns 14 this weekend - wow!! They grow up so fast! I love them both to pieces.
I have tweeted about Stone Soup before, but this is a photo when all the fresh ingredients are just starting to cook. I call it that because of the popular children's book but it's the recipe I use coming off the Master Cleanse, and I make it now and then because it's super healthy and yummy too. I just throw in whatever I happen to have in my freezer or fresh produce drawer at the time - usually things like frozen butter beans, corn, celery, okra, spinach, tomatoes (or salsa), leeks, onions, and then I add in quinoa, millet and/or rice, as well as lots of curry and turmeric and a touch of cayenne pepper and salt. So there ya go. Throw it in the crockpot and let it cook for 24 hours.
Today, I was at Target shopping for my son's birthday present and I came across this towel which was on Clearance. I needed a new towel for my bathroom because I have a white one I got last year and well that didn't work so well, with makeup and such getting wiped on it... It's amazing how very simple changes can make a corner of your bathroom look so much happier! OK I'm easily delighted, what can I say.
My last pic of the day is my blank Vision Board... obviously it's just a corkboard now. But I have been wanting to make a Vision Board for along time and the time is now! I got this out of my closet and bought some thumbtacks today (all the ones I have are used up on my map of the world - I put tacks in the places I want to go, and the places I've already been). My talented and inspiring friend Jessica - who owns the clothing/shoe manufacturing company Joyfolie - was talking about her Vision Board and it inspired me to start my own, finally! I hope to blog again tomorrow or Tuesday about the totally inspiring and helpful live Inner Mean Girl Reform School Open House tele-call from Saturday. They're offering another one Wednesday - so whether or not you've signed up for the free Inner Mean Girl Cleanse, you can call in for this and get some good nuggets of wisdom!

Delicious carrot soup recipe!

I made the most delicious soup this week and I thought I'd share the goodness. I made some modifications but it was sooooo good, healthy, and even my daughter liked it! (My son wouldn't try it but that's typical!) Above are most of the ingredients though I didn't have the leeks in the picture. I am a huge fan of leeks since I tried them out for the Baked Leek and Sweet Potato Gratin recipe I shared before in the post bread of life.

Carrot-Miso Soup with Wasabi Peas
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 medium leek, sliced into thin rings (1 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp.)
1 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1 ½ lb. carrots, peeled and sliced (5 cups)
3 Tbs. jasmine rice
1 4- x 2-inch piece kombu
1 ½ Tbs. white miso
2 tsp. agave nectar
1/3 cup crushed dried wasabi peas, for garnish

Directions
1. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Cook leek in oil 7 minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally. Stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Add vinegar to deglaze pan, and cook 1 minute.

2. Add carrots, rice, kombu, and 5 cups water. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 30 minutes, or until carrots are tender. Remove kombu, and blend soup until smooth.
3. Spoon 1 cup soup into small bowl. Whisk in miso and agave nectar until smooth. Whisk miso-agave-soup mixture back into soup. Serve soup with wasabi peas sprinkled on top.

You boil it up on the stove, and this is before it was pureed. The way I modified it: I did not use the piece of kombu or the miso concentrate but instead used the miso soup from the carton I had, which happened to be made with kombu. Since it was liquid and not concentrate, I used less water. So I think it was like 3 cups I had of the miso soup stuff and 2 cups of water. I used two cloves of minced garlic because you can't use too much garlic! I also didn't have wasabi peas but had these dried tamari peas and I don't recommend that... the soup was GREAT on its own. It may have been good with wasabi pea garnish but it's definitely not important. Oh, I used brown rice instead of Jasmine (white) rice. One more thing - I also added in some celery! I forgot to mention that.
I use the Cuisinhart I got as a wedding gift in 1993! I LOVE that thing!! All I can say was Oh. My. Gosh. This is soooo yummy and I'll definitely be making it again!
I wanted to include another shot of my yellow wall which I love! It looks much better in the light than in the fluorescent lighting which brings out the greener tones. You can see how it looks next to the brick red, and the wood floors. I love being in the kitchen now - the wall makes it so sunny! The border that you can see to the far right was also on the wall that is now yellow, and that's the one I originally wanted to remove from my entire kitchen. But it proved very difficult and the blue wallpaper remover stained the wall blueish - hence the need to paint. I'v been very busy working on an article about the oil spill, and I just booked a flight for a trip to West Texas mid-September for a couple articles I'm doing. I've been a busy girl!

oil, shrimp & cauliflower soup

Coastal marsh at the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area near Port Arthur, Texas. This type of marsh in Louisiana is going to be impacted severely by the oil spill, and right now is prime nesting season for shorebirds, ducks, and other critters.
Copyright (c) 2005 Wendee Holtcamp

Wanted to do a quick update. Have been researching the heck out of the tragic oil rig explosion and spill in the Gulf. I'm in Houston and the trajectory has it going to New Orleans and Louisiana and Mississippi's fragile coastline, but the whole thing is not a good situation. I reported a piece for Adventures in Climate Change that you can read here: Shrimp & Oil Really Do Mix?

I'm leaving Thursday for the Writing Away Retreat in Breckenridge, Colorado - and I absolutely can't wait! I will be meeting with book editors, agents, and other writer-authors. I am very much looking forward to it. And Doug gets back from 10 weeks offshore either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on weather, so it's going to be a busy week!

Meanwhile, here are some pics of a yummy soup recipe I made - Curried Cauliflower Soup.

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 medium tart apple, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped (1 cup)
1 Tbs. curry powder
1 clove garlic, sliced (1 tsp.)
1 large head cauliflower, chopped into 1-inch pieces (6 cups)
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 tsp. honey or agave nectar
1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions
1. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté 5 to 7 minutes, or until soft and golden. Stir in apple, curry powder, and garlic, and cook 2 minutes more, or until curry powder turns deep yellow.

2. Add cauliflower and vegetable broth, and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes. Cool 20 minutes, then blend in food processor or blender until smooth. Stir in honey and vinegar, and season with salt, if desired.

Chopping up the Cauliflower. The soup also has agave nectar, olive oil, and rice wine vinegar. I didn't have any rice wine vinegar, so I used another type. Honestly I don't remember if I used balsamic or apple cider vinegar but those are the two types I have.
Next, you boil the cauliflower in the vegetable broth. After this, you blend it or in my case I used my Cuisinhart food processor to blend it all up. The finished product! It was tastier than it may look in the photo - ha ha! It's hard to get a good photo of a pureed soup. I topped wiht freshly ground pepper.