Add some easy lobster dumplings to cauliflower soup for a perfectly elegant soup supper. Cauliflower soup with lobster dumplings – it’s elegance in a bowl!
I am head over heels in love with this recipe, because it looks and tastes so incredibly fancy and elegant and complicated. And it definitely IS fancy and elegant, but it definitely ISN’T complicated. I just love it when that happens. The soup itself is a simple puree of cauliflower and shallots and chicken broth with just a teeny hit of cream. The dumplings are a quick mixture of bread crumbs, a little egg, some chopped fresh tarragon, a hint of soft butter and (here comes the beauty part), just a little bit of chopped up cooked lobster.
The rest of the lobster (and you only need one lobster for every two people in this recipe, so you don’t have to take out a second mortgage to make this) you chop up and divide among the soup bowls.
After you puree the cauliflower and chicken broth into a nice smooth soup, you drop in your teeny little dumplings and cook them for about 5 minutes, just enough to make them hold together. Then you ladle out the fabulous soup and dumpling mixture over that lobster in the soup bowls.
Then you stand back and let the love and adoration and amazement wash over you. Even though the whole thing took 30 minutes from start to finish.
Important note: I used one steamed lobster to make this recipe for the Southern husband and myself for dinner, and because I am a girl who gives credit where credit is due, I need to tell you that the Southern husband went out in a pretty good-sized snowstorm to fetch the aforementioned steamed lobster.
So if you are looking for a show-stopper of a soup that is pretty dang easy, you have come to the right place. Or if you just like lobster. Or cauliflower. Or soup!
Cauliflower Soup with Lobster Dumplings
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
Soup
- 4 ounces butter
- 4 tablespoons shallots, minced
- 1 head cauliflower, greens removed, head cut into small pieces
- Salt
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 3 (1 1/2 pound) whole lobsters, cooked, meat removed from shell, 1/2 cup tail meat reserved for dumplings, tail meat sliced into rounds
Lobster Dumplings:
- 1 1/2 cups white bread crumbs
- 1/2 tablespoon softened butter
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 teaspoons chopped tarragon
- 1/2 cup chopped cooked lobster meat
- Milk, to bind if needed
- Salt and ground white pepper
Instructions
Soup
- Heat butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add shallots and cauliflower and season with salt. Saute the cauliflower until it begins to lightly caramelize and become tender. Add stock and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are completely soft. Meanwhile make the dumplings (directions below).
- Puree mixture until smooth in a blender, or right in the pot with an immersion blender. Add the heavy cream and nutmeg and bring the soup to a simmer.
- Add the dumplings and poach them in soup for 3 to 5 minutes. Check your seasoning and remove from heat.
- In a soup bowl place the lobster meat and 1 claw in center and pour 8 ounces of soup and dumplings on top.
Dumplings
- Mix all dumpling ingredients together and roll into small firm balls about 1/2-inch in diameter.
Recipe adapted from Michael Symon’s Food Network recipe
The thing is that when you add lobster to any recipe, it becomes gourmet. Isn't that a fun trick?
Actually, I love the sound of this soup. You get a good-for you base with a little indulgent lobster. heavenly.
Ha! Ha! The video with the crazy hound was the perfect ending to this…Elegant recipe…"Elegance, meet crazy hound…Crazy hound……CRAZY HOUND!!!….Oops! There he goes again!" LOL
Mmm, this sounds wonderful. Cauliflower is the best, but paired with lobster! I love Dixie – she and our Allie would be best friends!
LOL, Dixie would be great friends with our Gracie, also! She tears thru the snow (when we have it here in NC) like a madwoman and eats as much as she possibly can. Me, I'll take the SOUP!!!
Sounds delish – think I'm gonna have to add some sherry, though!
WOWOWOWOW, printed and in queue to make. I LOVe it.
Nice read, thanks for shared, i will post it in my blog coz in here much lobster.
Oh, wow, your creation looks amazing. I can't believe how badly I'd like to be eating this right now (my desire for instant gratification rarely gets this rabid). I'm wondering if this would be as tasty if I only slightly pureed the cauliflower, as my bf has an odd dislike of creamy soups in general, regardless of the flavors therein.
This looks and sounds quite fancy simply because of the mention of lobster! Love the flavors.
Thanks all, sounds like we should have a dog party!
@ElisabethSpace: I think you should try it! The soup underneath will of course be thinner, but that could be just fine. 🙂