Soup of the week: cauliflower, smoked cheese and paprika

This week's soup comes from dashing out in my lunch-hour to pick up origami paper (yes, it was an urgent lunchtime dash, I'll explain all another time).

My office is in the West End of Edinburgh. It's surrounding by dinky sandwich shops, chi chi clothes shops for people paid rather a lot more than me, and the sort of places you can get origami paper at the last minute. So as I made my dash, I passed a number of chalk boards advertising various soups of the day. One of them said smoked cheese and cauliflower. I don't remember which shop it was, and I didn't nip in to pick some up - I'd already had a portion of butter bean, thyme and chilli oil soup - but the idea stayed in my head.

So when it came to making this week's vat of soup on Sunday, I decided to give it a go. And the result was great - I dipped a teaspoon in to taste it when it was done, and kept going back for more.

Ingredients (makes 8 portions)

 

Two cauliflowers

Two or three sticks of celery

Two onions
Two or three potatoes (afterthought - not pictured)
1.5 l or 3 pints veg stock (for a thick soup, add an extra half litre/pint for something thinner)
Two teaspoons smoked paprika (sweet)
150-200g smoked cheese (I used applewood smoked chedder)

Dice onions, celery and soften in a little oil.
Chop cauliflower into florets, finely chop stem, and add. Peel and dice potatoes, and add.
Add stock, paprika and bring to boil. Leave bubbling away for 20 minutes.

When soft, add grated cheese and blend using a stick blender.