I thing for naturally purple foods, apparently. I went purple crazy at the farmers market earlier this spring, with purple spring onions, purple cauliflower, and gorgeous purple garlic.

One thing is for sure, all that purple makes for some stunning photos.

Cauliflower is a cool weather vegetable, so it usually disappears from the local markets during the heat of the summer. But now that it’s cooling down again it’s back with gusto, including my favorite purple variety (I swear it tastes better than the white kind. Just me?) What I love most about this violet vegetable is that it holds its hue even after cooking, unlike other purple produce like asparagus and beans, making for a particularly stunning presentation.

This soup recipe emerged from a simple desire to make a vibrantly purple soup that highlighted the beautiful color of the cauliflower.

The recipe itself is a variation on the creamy cauliflower soup with brown butter we’ve made before. We simply swapped the purple cauliflower for the white, and also added some purple sweet potatoes for an added punch of color and flavor. Also red onion (more purple) in place of yellow and shallot instead of leek, because if 1 purple vegetable is good then 4 is better.

For toppings (since all creamy soups of this nature need some textural contrast to really be enjoyable to me at least), we added some crispy cauliflower, fresh chives, and drizzle of crème fraîche, and a sprinkle of popped sorghum.

Popped sorghum?!? Indeed!

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