By JOEY DEGRADO
You Don't Need Dairy To Give Tomato Soup A Creamier Texture
Tomato soup can achieve a luxurious texture without any dairy. Adding cauliflower transforms the soup’s consistency and complements rather than overwhelms the other flavors.
To make cauliflower cream, cook it by simmering or roasting until it's ultra-tender, then pulverize it into a thick, sauce-like consistency using an immersion or standing blender.
Roasting the cauliflower before blending allows the vegetable to caramelize, so that its natural sweet and nutty flavors can add a unique depth to the finished soup.
Using cauliflower as a thickener not only avoids the curdling and separation that can occur with dairy additions, but also allows the soup’s primary flavors to take center stage.
Cashew nuts are another ingredient that can add richness to tomato soup. Plain cashews will need to be soaked and then blended into a velvety cream before stirring into the soup.