Loose Smashed Cauliflower / Thick Cauliflower Soup

So much cauliflower..

Last week's CSA Day... My favorite day of the week.  Busy running around and not getting to dinner until 8, but I wanted to make a dent in the bounty of produce.  So, I concocted this mess.  Just a matter of perspective whether you want to call it a thick soup or loose smashed mock-potatoes.  Either way a bowl and a spoon help the situation.    

Loose Smashed Cauliflower / Thick Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Post pilates dinner: Punkin Beer;
Overcooked crock apples;
Smashed Cauliflower..

1 and a half heads of cauliflower

The immersian blender fixes
everything...

1 leek
1 C chicken broth
2 C water (In retrospect - use less water if you want it thicker and more like mashed potatoes.)
1/4 C parm
1/2 C 2% milk
2 T garlic powder
1 T olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Reduced shredded cheddar blend

Break up cauliflower.  Slice leek.  Bring broth and water to a boil with veggies.  Simmer.  15-20 minutes until easily breaks apart with a wooden spoon.  Stir a few times during that time to make sure all parts get submerged at some point.  Add a healthy amount of garlic powder towards end.  If I'd had garlic cloves I would have added that from the beginning.

When cauliflower is soft, remove from heat.  Add parm, milk, and olive oil.  Add salt and pepper.  Whip out the immersian blender.  Immerse and blend to desired consistency.  Top with shredded cheddar.  Enjoy!  (I enjoyed this later in the week mixed with cheese grits and some crawfish tail meat.... it's quite versatile..)

Nom nom.  Kind of a grits
consistency..