September Recipe: Curried Cauliflower Chili

The 'ber months of the year are here for 2023, and we love nothing more than to curl up with some soup on the first days of cool temperatures. Christina has once again served us a wonderful recipe that will hit the spot on those fall nights. 

Don't forget to grab one of our Fireside Soup Mugs when they are released on September 23rd! Hopefully by that time we will have some chilly (or chili?) nights. 

Curried Cauliflower Chili
w/Potatoes and Chickpeas

Christina Williams, West & Taylor

Westandtaylor.com

This recipe came to life in the midst of needing supper but having not gone to the store that week. I’m an avid fan of working with what you have, so I headed to the pantry and the freezer for ingredients that would make a hearty soup/stew. When I saw what I had on hand I was instantly reminded of my favorite Indian dish, Aloo Gobi; I prefer the cauliflower over the potatoes so this leans on the cauliflower. After tasting the soup and knowing exactly what I would do differently next time, I took notes and developed this. I’ll even give you some of my notes on how I will continue to play with this recipe in the future.

Prep Time: 30 minutes |Total time: 1 hour to overnight

Ingredients

• 32 oz of broth
• 16 oz frozen cauliflower
• 10 oz frozen riced cauliflower, optional
• 17 oz (or half a bag) frozen diced potatoes
• 1 can of garbanzo beans/chickpeas
• ½ cup diced onions
• 6 cloves of chopped garlic, or 1 Tbls minced
• 15 oz tomato sauce
• 1 package (1 oz) onion soup mix
• 1 package Knorr Vegetable Mix, optional
• 1 Tbsp Yellow or Sweet Curry Spice blend (I used Spice House brand)
• 2 tsp Red Curry blend (again Spice House brand), optional 
• Olive oil for sauteing the onion and potato
• S/P to taste, remember if you use both the onion soup and vegetable mix you may not need as much salt.
•  

Preparation

• In a large pot or dutch oven, saute the onions, garlic and potatoes in olive oil until the onions are soft and the potatoes are lightly browned. Feel free to pull these out and roast until the end of the soup making process if you’d like your potatoes to be on the cripsier side.
• Pour in your broth and add in the curry seasonings, bring to a slow boil and add in your chickpeas.
• Add in your cauliflower, onion soup and vegetable mix (if using). Mix and taste, add salt or pepper if you need. (Because I like the cauliflower aspect of the dish that inspired this, Aloo Gobi, I add in riced and chunks of cauliflower. If you don’t like the cauliflower idea that much, leave out the riced so you can easily eat around the cauliflower if needed. However, I will say the riced cauliflower helps provide the ‘rice’ that the inspiration dish often comes with.)
• If you’ve roasted your potatoes, onions and garlic, now’s the time to add them to the pot.
• Now, you’ll need to add in your tomato sauce and possibly a can (the tomato sauce can) of water, depending on how thick you’d like your soup. 
• Turn the heat up and make sure it comes to a boil before bringing it to a simmer and allowing it to sit for about 15 minutes. Stirring frequently so the ingredients do not stick. 
• As with any chili, this is in my opinion better the next day, but if you must eat it straight away I do recommend letting it rest-off the heat-for about 30 minutes. This not only allows the flavors to meld but if you use the vegetable mix, it will make sure that the dehydrated vegetables in the mix are rehydrated properly.

Notes:

• The Red Curry blend is optional but I almost always put paprika in my recipes and since this is curry inspired and Red Curry usually has paprika in the blend, why not just lean into it?
• If you have left over roast potatoes, by all means, use them instead of frozen.
• Going forward, I may turn this into a creamier stew by replacing a portion of the broth with coconut milk, but again this was born from what I had on hand at the time. 
• If you prefer a spicier curry, please by all means use a hot curry blend, add peppers or use more curry powder than in the recipe.