Creamy Cauliflower Soup and Cheese Buns

Every once in a while I try to slip a meatless meal by my resident carnivore, or as in this case, almost meatless. He complains a lot when I even mention it so I added a couple of slices of bacon to last night's cauliflower soup just to keep him quiet uh ...happy. 

We all have our favorite versions of creamy cauliflower soup but in my opinion there's no other thing that adds flavor to the mix in quite the same way as bacon. I crispfied some iddy biddy little cubes to use as a garnish, and kept the drippings to give the onions color and flavor before the cauliflower, potatoes and chicken stock hit the pot. After the veggies cooked and the immersion blender did its thing, the soup was finished with a little sour cream, a few ounces of American cheese and fresh nutmeg. Garnished with the bacon as well as slivers of sun dried tomatoes for color that was it for the soup and if you think I'm in a hurry to get to the point, you'd be right. The stars of the show last night were the cheese buns.

There's a bakery in my old home town of Calgary that I still dream about. Everything's made on site and it's all amazing but Glamorgan Bakery's cheese buns are out of this world. I used to gladly drive half way across the city on a Saturday morning just to buy the darned things but somehow driving 902 miles for a fix doesn't make sense so I did the next best thing. I whipped 'em up myself with a little help from Rhodes although I could have made the dough from scratch. Could've but didn't - hey lazy and easy sound a lot alike, you know.

Melted butter, a mix of medium white cheddar and parmesan cheese, a little time to rise and here they are in all their oeey gooey cheesy glory. I've no clue how close the flavor is to Glamorgan's because it's been darn near 15 years since I've tasted one and not even my memory can serve me that well but believe you me for as little effort as they took, these are stellar.  

Ohhh ya baby! Here's the flip side so now you know what I'm talkin' about, right?

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Bacon an original from JBug’s Kitchen Antics

2 slices thick cut bacon, cut into small cubes

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 large head cauliflower, roughly chopped

2 small Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced

Salt and course ground black pepper

1 quart low sodium chicken stock

1/2 cup sour cream

5 slices American cheese

Freshly grated nutmeg

Slivered sun dried tomatoes as garnish

 Cook bacon in a large pot over medium low heat until fat renders and bacon is crisp. Remove from pot, leaving drippings. Add butter to pot and when it is melted, add onions. Cook until onions are transparent then sprinkle in flour. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes then add chicken stock, cauliflower and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are very soft. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove pot from heat and allow to cool slightly, and then using an immersion blender, puree vegetables until smooth. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed. Add freshly grated nutmeg to taste, then stir in sour cream and cheese, stirring over low heat until cheese has melted and soup is hot. Serve garnished with bacon and sun dried tomatoes. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

 Easy Cheese Buns

 Rhodes Frozen Dinner Rolls

2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup butter, melted

Spray a 6 cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Mix cheese together and set aside. Using 12 small frozen dough balls from a package of Rhodes dinner rolls, dip each in melted butter and place one in each muffin cup. Sprinkle cheese beside each dough ball and place a second ball of dough in each cup. Pile cheese liberally on top of each cup; place pan on a sheet pan and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Place and a warm spot and let rise for 2 to 3 hours. (I preheat the oven to 170 degrees, turn it off, and then put the pan in the oven and leave the oven light on).

To bake, preheat oven to 375. Remove plastic wrap from top of rolls and bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until rolls are puffed and nicely browned

Comments

[Lea Callais]

Yummy dinner right there for a cool winter night - and those buns look too easy and most delish!

[June]

Lea - the cheese buns are definitely keepers and the soup not bad either. I'm thinking a repeat of both wouldn't be a bad thing.

[Lorraine]

Okay, the soup sounded good, but the cheesy buns made me want to totally carb out. Nothing but cheesy buns for the whole week.

[June]

Figured those buns would get your attention. Ha.