Zupas Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

I've seen a recipe for Zupas famous Wisconsin Cauliflower soup floating around Pinterest for the last few months, and I finally had a rainy day that called for something exactly like it.  So I used this website and thought I'd give it a try.

First we gathered all the ingredients.  The problem with this recipe right off was I don't keep a lot of the ingredients on hand on most days.  I mean, who has 2 1/2 pounds of cauliflower just taking up space in their fridge?   If you do, I applaud you.  I also don't keep half and half around, or at least none that is to be used for things other than creaming up coffee in the mornings.

I also don't keep pounds of pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese on hand.  But I was really excited to try this recipe, so I made a special trip to the store just for the ingredients.

It's a pretty straight forward recipe, and I had a lot of help from Gretta, my 7 year old, and from the wife, and honestly, it would have been a lot to do alone.

So we added the onions and butter and flour all in a dutch oven.  Side note, I love my dutch oven, and I substitute it in any time a recipe calls for a "large skillet".  This recipe calls for a large skillet.  My 6 quart dutch oven was barely big enough, so remember that.

Also, we doubled the recipe, because it didn't seem like it would have been enough to feed the 5 of us.  I'm glad we did.

We added in the chicken stock and half and half and milk.

And then we added the 2 1/2 pounds of cauliflower and brought it to a boil.  This says about 15 minutes on the recipe.  It took more like 40.  That's a lot of liquid to bring to a boil.

Then we pureed it in the blender.  This took 3 batches, but if you're lucky enough to have a Vitamix or a Ninja, you might be able to get this done in one batch.

Then we melted in the cheeses (yum!) and the mustard.   The mustard seemed like a weird addition, but it really did add that extra something this soup needs.

An hour later, dinner was ready.  We served it up with some bacon, because bacon makes everything better, and some Grands biscuits.

The kids loved it, I loved it, and the wife loved it.  So I think it was a success.  It tastes pretty darn close to Zupas, and with the doubled recipe, we had some left over for lunch tomorrow.  Yippee!

Is it worth it?  Yes, I think so.  A double batch of this soup cost about $12 - $15 dollars, depending on where you shop, which is a bargain when compared to buying soup for 5 people at Zupas, which can cost around $35 or so.

Is it worth the mess?  The cauliflower makes a mess when you cut it, but nothing major, so other than that, is is just regular cooking mess.  So yeah, it's worth the mess.

Would I recommend it?  Yep!  Do it, it's yummy, and a great comfort food for a rainy day.  Just don't blame me when your lactose intolerance shows up a couple of hours after.  (Take a Lactaid, they're life savers.)