Experimental Soup

So I was chopping up a cauliflower the other day, as you do, and I remembered that people in the know recommend keeping the core of the cauliflower to use in soup, but when I cut the blasted thing out it was kind of piddly and not nearly enough to make anything decent with. So then I looked at the pile of cauliflower leaves next to the chopping board, and wondered if they were edible.

Note: In hindsight, if you're wondering whether or not something is edible, it's probably a good idea to check before you cook and eat it. But on with the story.

I figured throwing the leaves and core of the cauliflower all in a soup together was a decent enough way to find out whether they were, in fact, digestible. But I didn't want to waste perfectly decent ingredients to go with them just in case it tasted horrible. So I also threw in an old carrot, and a potato that was sprouting and a little softer than usual. Solid logic there.

I chopped everything up fairly small, covered it with water, and added a chicken stock cube, some salt and pepper, a crushed clove of garlic, some lemon juice, and some dried tarragon, then simmered for 20 minutes or so, and loosely mashed everything to keep it chunky.

And the verdict is... edible!

It turns out cauliflower leaves taste like a cross between cauliflower, cabbage and spinach. They're a little on the bitter side, but the lemon juice helped with that.

Experimental Soup - tell your friends.