Cancer-fighting Foods: Roasted Cauliflower Curry Soup

The evidence is clear that maintaining a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes/beans plays a large role in cancer prevention. Unfortunately, on cold January days a salad or a homemade smoothie can seem less than appealing, which is why I propose making your own soup.

One cup of soup can provide 1 to 2 servings of cancer-fighting vegetables that can help you warm up from the cold and fill up, which helps to prevent overeating and weight gain. I recommend making your own soup, the canned, frozen, or packaged varieties found in the grocery store can often have as much as a 700 mg of sodium per serving. This is a ¼ of your daily recommended intake of salt in one cup of soup!

There are low sodium varieties on the shelves as well as low sodium vegetable or chicken stock if sodium is a concern of yours. If you have an immersion blender, vegetable soup can be a one pot production that requires little chopping ahead of time, which is my kind of cooking!

This is one of my favorite soups to make; all you need is one pot, 5 ingredients and an immersion blender! Make sure you subscribe to this blog, and "like" our Facebook page for more cancer-fighting recipes.

Roasted Cauliflower Curry Soup

• 1/4 cup raw sunflower kernels (optional)
• 3 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, divided
• 3 teaspoons mild curry powder, divided, more to taste
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5 cups (about 1 pound) cauliflower florets

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a medium bowl, toss sunflower kernels with 1 teaspoon almond milk and 1 teaspoon curry powder. Spread out on a small parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake, tossing once or twice, until toasted and fragrant, 6 to 8 minutes; set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 1/2 cup almond milk in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add cauliflower, remaining 2 teaspoons curry powder and almond milk, cover and simmer until cauliflower is very tender, about 40 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasoning with more curry powder if you like. Use an emulsion or handheld blender to puree until smooth, or transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.

Garnish each bowl with sunflower seeds and serve.

Nutritional information per serving: 140 calories, 7g total fat, 200mg sodium, 6g dietary fiber, 5g sugar, 6g protein