This is a vegan dish with has a lovely rich, deep flavour from all the oven roasted veg and the cashew cream (a great ingredient by the way, try it in place of double cream). The fried capers add a finishing touch to raise the bar to what is already a restaurant standard dish. We have added parmesan rinds to give it a bit of a cheesy tang – we were thinking about a subtle form of cauliflower cheese soup, and this worked a dream. However, this is entirely optional if you want a vegan dish, and the soup is amazing without it. You need to get the cashews soaking the night before. The cashew cream is an excellent substitute for double cream as well as being a thickening agent.

The cashew cream (makes 300ml):-

160g raw (unroasted) cashew nuts + water 

• Put the cashews in a bowl and completely cover with water. Cover with a plate and soak for at least 12 hours

• Drain the cashews and rinse. Pop them in a powerful blender (e.g a Nutribullet) and pour enough fresh cold water to cover them by 2 cm. Blend until very smooth and creamy without any trace of graininess. If you don’t have a high powered blender you may need to sieve the cream

• Cover and refrigerate until you need it. It will thicken as it sits and should make about 300ml of cashew cream – add more water if it is less than this

The soup:-

1 large head of cauliflower, leaves removed, and cut/torn into 3 cm pieces. Use the stalk as well unless it is woody

2 leeks, white and green parts, halved and chopped into 3cm pieces (rinse well if there is any soil)

1 onion, peeled and quartered

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Salt (ideally smoked salt) and freshly ground pepper

20g vegan butter or extra virgin olive oil

2 bay leaves

1 litre vegetable stock or nage

2 - 3 rinds of Parmesan cheese (optional)

2 tbsp white miso

300ml cashew cream

Soy sauce 

To serve:- 

Groundnut or similar light flavoured oil

10g capers (about 8 per person) rinsed, drained well and left to dry on a wad of paper towels

Excellent bread

• First make the cashew cream

• Heat the oven to 200C 

• Put the cauliflower, leek, and onion into a large baking tray. Add the extra virgin olive oil and season well, mix together with your hands to coat everything well and put in the oven for 30 or so minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until the veg are tender and slightly charred. Remove from oven and set aside

• OPTIONAL: only do this stage if using up Parmesan rinds. Heat the stock with the Parmesan rinds, and simmer gently with the lid on for 20 minutes to release the flavour. Remove the rinds and set the stock aside

• In a large pan or wok, heat the butter substitute/oil. When melted, stir fry the bay leaves for a minute until they release their fragrance, then add the roasted veg and stir well. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Gently simmer the soup for 20 minutes with the lid on, then pour in the cashew cream and miso, and gently simmer for a further 5 minutes. This will thicken the soup. Remove the bayleaves.

• Blitz the soup in batches until ultra-smooth. Add pepper and a little more (ideally, smoked) salt; you may also need to add a little more water to get a velouté like consistency. Then add soy sauce, little by little, until you get the desired umami hit

• Finally, just before serving heat about 1cm of the groundnut oil in a small pan until very hot but not smoking. Carefully add the capers to the oil and stir gently until they bloom and become crisp, but not burned - this takes about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and dry on paper towels

• Serve the soup immediately with the capers and the  bread