Make a Nerdy Dinner : Fractal Soup

This guy came home with us last week.  We like to bring one of these vegetables home maybe once a month.  It’s an interesting looking thing, isn’t it?  We’ve never seen anything like it in the United States.

The vegetable is officially called a romanesco.  Sometimes it’s romanesco broccoli.  Other times it’s romanesco cauliflower.  We didn’t know any of this before.  All we knew was that this vegetable had the most amazing mathematical structure.  The florets spiral into peaks, creating nature’s own perfect fractal.  They’re the perfect food for people of math and science.

But how are you supposed to cook them?

After weeks and weeks of seeing Martin leaning over this vegetable while I gather potatoes or eggs, I told him to grab one.  ”What’ll we do with it?” Martin asked.  He wasn’t even looking at me.  He was still gazing at all the mathematical glory stuck between red cabbages and ginger.

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging.  ”Maybe soup?”

Soup is always the answer.  And as it turns out, romanesco makes an amazing soup!  I treat it just like broccoli soup, which is just by touch and feel.  Soup is such a flexible food.  I rarely turn to a recipe.  Soup can be the perfect food to try experimenting with and inventing your own combinations.

As it turns out, romanesco soup is delicious!  It’s also really fun.  But you can’t call it romanesco soup.  Oh no!  I had to look up the word “romanesco” just to write this post.  To lure in the non-vegetable, scientific folks, this recipe must be called: fractal soup.

Here’s my simple recipe for Fractal Soup:

1. Sauté some chopped onions, then add garlic

2.  Add chopped fractals/romanesco

3.  Sometimes add a little bullion or herbs (optional)

3.  Pour in hot water (mine’s from the hot pot – so German of me!) so the vegetables are 2/3 submerged

4.  Add salt and pepper

5.  Cook around 5-8 minutes until almost tender – don’t let them get mushy

6.  Add cream and quark (quark is optional)

7. Pour in the blender and give it several quick pulses

8.  Serve with grated cheese and croutons (which are just cut up stale bread coated in olive oil and toasted or broiled)

Now I’m curious.  What’s the weirdest thing you’ve picked up at the grocery store lately?  Any pickled pigs feet out there?  Or a label you could not understand only to find out you brought home something way, way wrong?  And while we’re at it – any math junkies out there?  Know someone who’d love to chow down on a little fractal soup before the summer heat hits us?

Want to get cooking with some of our funnest recipes?  They’re all on one handy-dandy recipes page right here.  From homemade graham crackers to different European cookies we’ve featured on Making This Home, it’s all there.  Yum!