I originally started making cauliflower soup from the recipe at Becks & Posh. One complaint: too much salt. Now I've tried it a couple times and concluded that the maximally simple recipe is the best recipe. I've added 1/8 tsp of freshly ground pepper, reduced the salt to 1 tsp. Here's the complete recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of cauliflower, separated into florets
• 1 small white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 cups of hot water
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1/8 tsp of freshly ground pepper

Procedure

1. In a heavy pan (that has a lid), melt butter over low heat
2. Add onion and cook gently until softened, not brown, 15 minutes
3. Add Cauliflower, salt and 1/2 cup of water.
4. Raise the heat to medium-low, cover tightly with a lid and cook for 20 minutes
5. Remove lid, add remaining water and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes more
6. Leave to cool sightly before blending until super-smooth
7. Return to the pan to heat before serving, thinning with a little more water if the soup is too thick for your taste.

2012-01-22: I made this recipe again tonight. It is without a doubt the best cauliflower soup I have ever had. It's not an overwhelming taste. It's the simple taste of the vegetables and the butter gently blended together.

2013-02-03: I made this recipe again last week. It is still without a doubt the best cauliflower soup. This time just before throwing the mix in the blender, I added half a teaspoon of ground chipotle; that's right, the chipotle powder didn't cook in the pot. Awesome.

I want to add more fruits and vegetables to my diet. This idea crossed my mind.

• ¼ head of green cabbage
• 1 large Granny Smith apple
• juice of 1 large lemon (3 tbsp)

Shred the apple in a food processor. Add the lemon juice so it soaks the apple parts so they won't turn brown. Shred the cabbage in the food processor. Remove everything to a bowl. Mix thoroughly.

Result? I really like this stuff.

If I were to make this for my niece and nephew, I might add a tablespoon of honey.

In my quest to eat more greens and also to find recipes that don't heat the house in the summer, I'm experimenting with crockpot collard greens. I took two bunches of collards, cut off the think stems, and chopped the leaves. In the crock pot I threw some coconut milk along with 1 tbsp of hot curry powder. I used a wire whisk to mix the coconut milk and curry powder evenly. Then I threw in the collards. Then I set the crockpot outside on the porch, plugged it in, and set it to low. The amount of liquid in the pot is minimal, which concerns me, but I really don't want a mess of pot liquor. I added 4 oz of water just in case. I'm hoping that four hours will do it. The calorie significant parts are:

Divided up into four servings, that should be about 111 calories per serving.

I ended up letting it cook 4 hours on low. Added a bit of salt. Then I stirred it. Then let it cook another hour. The amount of time was enough to cook the collards without turning them into a stringy mess. The taste was mediocre. It probably is a mistake to make collards without adding some decently sauteed onions and garlic. Or maybe just a tablespoon of sugar.

Tonight I decided to make "flash-cooked hominy with kale or collards" from page 193 "How to cook everything." I used the red pepper option. I didn't have limes handy, so I used one lemon and one small orange. Tasted good. I'll do variations on this again. Next time around I'll just use my standard collard recipe and throw some hominy in for the last five minutes.

Today I made braised chard using the same recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Divided into four, that makes 130 calories per serving. Very tasty. I threw in a couple tepines, too, but that doesn't really affect the calorie count. The chard had an almost buttery taste to it.

Chard doesn't have the bitter taste of mustard greens, so I think in the future I may just eat in raw in salads.

Tonight I once again use the braised winter greens recipe in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. That recipe rocks! I used a bit of green curry paste in today's version, and the taste was wonderful. I'm making this a regular part of my cooking henceforth.

Tonight I made puréed butternut squash with ginger from “How to cook everything.” The calorically signficant ingredients are:

The recipe produced about two cups of purée. I'll probably divide it into two servings, thus 307 calories per serving, which is a bit more than I'm used to in Food Nazi mode, but probably okay for an occasional side dish in a weight-stable diet.

Today I made turnips in mustard sauce from How to cook everything. My first reaction is: edible. We didn't eat turnips in my home growing up, so I'm not quite sure what they are supposed to taste like, and there was an oddish, slightly bitter taste to them. The mustard sauce was good, but it was strong enough that I'm not sure that I was actually tasting the turnips. I look forward to eating them again over the next few days and see how my palette reinterprets them. The caloric ingredients:

Dividing the recipe into four servings brings us to about 116 calories per serving, which is entirely reasonable for a side dish.

Tonight I'm braising mustard greens based on the approach in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. These greens are very tender, so I'm not going to braise them nearly as long, and I'm going to add some Mae Ploy green curry paste. Here's the nutrition info for today's variation:

Dividing up that mess into four servings, that comes out to 134 calories per serving, which is reasonable for a side dish.

Taste-wise it came out adequate. The mustard greens cooked for only 15-20 minutes, and they still had the bitter taste. I'm curious whether further cooking would remove it. Next time I'll cook it closer to the article's original instructions and see if that makes a difference.

I can't pass by a farmers' market these days without stopping and looking around. Sunday I was driving through Old Town Scottsdale and spotted one. I've been wanting to add leafy greens to my diet. It was time to try mustard greens, so I picked up a bunch.

Cook's Illustrated suggested cooking them like collard greens. They were really tender mustard greens, though, so I decided to eat them raw, about 2 ounces' worth at each meal. They are spicy and bitter. I kind of like them. I'll continue eating them this way, but I can see that people with Midwest taste buds wouldn't like them uncooked.