I paired cauliflower with sweet potato in this smooth soup, and added coconut milk and garam masala to give it a gentle spiciness. I also caramelized a bunch of cashews to go with the soup - they gave it a nice contrasting texture and a cinnamony element of sweetness, and we ended up with a delicious lunch for two days.

This batch made enough soup for three lunches - two for me and one for Heikki.

The Soup:

• 1 small head of cauliflower, cut in florets
• 300 g (one medium) sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 and 1/2 dl coconut milk
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• salt to taste
• about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

I fried the onion and garlic in the oil until soft, then added the sweet potato and cauliflower, and fried for a few more minutes. After frying the veggies, I added the coconut milk, vegetable stock, and garam masala, and let the soup simmer until the vegetables were soft, for about 20 minutes. While it was boiling, I prepared the cashews.

Then I puréed the soup with out immersion blender, added a little bit of salt (might not be necessary if the stock is very salty), and stirred in the lemon juice. Before serving, I sprinkled my bowl with cashews.

Cashew Nuts:

• 1 dl cashews
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon water
• pinch of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
• pinch of salt

First I toasted the cashews lightly on a dry frying pan, and meanwhile mixed the rest of the ingredients together. When the nuts had browned a bit, I lowered the heat to medium, poured the syrup mixture in the pan, and stirred until the cashews were shiny and covered with the syrup, and the water had evaporated. Now, I poured the nuts on a plate covered with aluminium foil and let them cool down until the soup was ready to serve.

My cashews came out really sticky, which basically means that I didn’t caramelize them enough. That’s not a problem when sprinkled in a soup, but the leftover cashews were a nuisance to eat…