At such a cold weather, it is always good to get something warm for your body and soul when you get home. Cauliflower is a very spermidine-rich vegetable and right now available at every supermarket.  Cauliflower is not only rich in spermidine but at the moment hyped as a superfood and very often used in vegan recipes. Children most often like this vegetable, because it does not have such an intensive flavor as its spermidine-rich relative broccoli.

Alternative to often used milk products (i.e. whipped cream) I use potatoes to make the soup creamy. Therefore, it is easy to digest, even richer in spermidine and last but not least vegan.

As a topping for this creamy soup, I will make some spermidine-rich croutons made of whole-grain bread and wheat germ. Whole-grain that contains endosperm, germ and bran, has more spermidine than refined-grain, which is only made from the endosperm. Besides spermidine, whole-grain is also richer on vitamins, oils, mineral nutrients and fibers. According to current knowledge, wheat germ is one of the spermidine-richest commercially available food products. For the croutons, it is good to use old (dry) bread. Very suitable are the leftover lunch breads of the kids. All parents know the half-empty lunch boxes, nobody wants to eat that again in the evening, and therefore it is a good opportunity to still use it for something yummy instead of throwing it away. Croutons are very easy to make and storable in a jar for weeks (if they are really dry!).

So let’s start with the soup

Chop and wash the cauliflower. Peel and cut potatoes in ~ 1cm thick pieces. Peel and roughly chop onion and sweat until translucent in the pot with the oil and then add 750 ml vegetable stock. Further, add the chopped cauliflower and potatoes and salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let cook until the potatoes are done. Mix everything and add some lemon juice and more seasoning if it is needed.

While the soup is boiling, there is enough time to prepare the spermidine-rich croutons. Therefore, cut the bread in small cubes, chop the herbs and roast everything together with olive oil, salt and pepper (and chili) for about 3-5 minutes in a pan. For the last half minute, add the finely chopped garlic and the wheat germ. The garlic needs only short heat to develop its full flavor (but does not taste good if it gets too much heat!). Regarding the wheat germ, it nicely sticks to the bread cubes and I think the less heat it gets the more spermidine and vitamins remain. For more flavor and more spermidine, some grated cheddar lovely completes the dish.

Done! It really is easy and fast to cook and leaves enough time to relax and enjoy.

Ingredients:

750 ml vegetable stock

1 little cauliflower (or ½ normal sized one)

2 medium sized potatoes

1 onion

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt, pepper and nutmeg

Juice of ½ a lemon

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4 slices of whole-grain bread

4 tbsp of wheat germ

½ small garlic

1 small twig of thyme and rosemary

4 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

50 g grated cheddar (optional)