The cold tomato soup is delightful on its own, but pairing the chilled tomato with the warm sweet potato and cauliflower mash… the taste/texture/temperature sensation is divine.
Rather than monolithic, homogeneous dishes, my preference tends to dishes containing ingredients that complement and contrast each other. This chilled tomato soup with sweet potato and cauliflower mash has cold-warm, acidic-neutral, and velvety-crispy. And the one constant… it is very healthy!
The sweet potato and cauliflower mash is a healthy replacement for a potato mash. Potato is not as interesting or healthy, but it does work well in this dish if that is your preference or that is what you have available. If you are not a fan of cauliflower, all the more reason to try it. Cauliflower is an amazingly versatile vegetable. This crumbed cauliflower recipe is a great example of its versatility, as is this spicy roasted cauliflower.
There is a whole head of roasted garlic in this dish. Half is in the cold tomato soup and half in the sweet potato and cauliflower mash. Don’t let that put you off if you are not a garlic lover. Roasted the garlic in foil for an hour transforms the raw garlic into something quite sweet and subtle. Give it a try. Garlic is so good for you.
Cold tomato soup with sweet potato and cauliflower mash
Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic
For the tomato puree
- 3 large tomatoes
- 1 large red pepper
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 – 8 cloves roasted garlic About 1/2 the head of garlic we roasted
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup parsley stalks removed and finely chopped
For the sweet potato and cauliflower mash
- 2 medium sweet potatos
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 10 g butter
- 5 – 8 cloves roasted garlic the other half of the head of the roasted garlic
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 2 parsnips for the parsnip spears
Instructions
- Wrap the head of garlic in foil, together with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Wash, halve and trim the red peppers. Smear with olive oil. Roast both for 60 minutes at 200 deg C.
Tomato puree
- Pour boiling water over tomatoes and let them sit for 15 minutes
- Remove any burnt skin from the roasted peppers
- Drain the tomatoes, remove the skins and hard stalk from the centre.
- Add lemon juice.
- Squeeze the roasted garlic from the skins and add 1/2 to the tomato mixture. Retain the other half for the mash.
- Puree all with an immersion blender. Add a little water to make it more soup like if necessary
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and 1/2 cup of finely chopped parsley. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Sweet potato and cauliflower mash
- Boil sweet potato and cauliflower, adding 1/2 tsp salt to the water
- Allow sweet potato and cauliflower to cool a bit then mash together with the butter and other half of the roast head of garlic.
- Keep warm in a 130 degC oven, or reheat later.
- Just before serving, gently stir in the other half cup of finely chopped parsley.
Parsnips
- Fry parsnip spears in oil until brown and crispy. Drain.