Roughly chop the onions and leeks into half inch pieces, you don’t need to be too finicky about the size since it’ll all just get blended anyway. Make sure to clean your leeks really, really well. This soup is meant to be silky smooth and you don’t want a gross bit of sand ruining the whole experience.

In a large pot add the oil and butter and gently cook those alliums, the onions and leeks, with some salt, until they’re soft. Try not to brown them, we’re not going for a caramelized flavor here. Once everything is softened and translucent add in 4c of water along with half the cut up purple cauliflower. Simmer for about 15-20 mins. Then, add the rest of the cauliflower and simmer another 15-20 mins till all the cauliflower is tender, but not total mush. Cooking the cauliflower in two segments like this gives you the ability to get the soup incredibly smooth and creamy, but still have some bright, fresh cauliflower flavor in there.

Once everything is good and tender, blend away! I use an immersion blender, which works really well for me, but you can always use a standard blender. Just blend in batches and be so careful not to burn yourself!

Ok, soups done, now onto garnish…

First, chive oil: Brown 4 tbsp of butter and set aside, either in a blender, or a container safe to use with an immersion blender. Quickly blanch a handful of chives in boiling water, no more than 10 seconds and shock in ice water to stop the cooking. We’re trying to preserve that vibrant green color. Drain the chives well, add them to the butter and blend until smooth.

Next, cauliflower garnish: Cut up the Romanesco in small florets and in the same pan you browned the butter in, sauté with a generous amount of butter. Cook until the butter and cauliflower are both nicely browned, and the cauliflower is tender.

Serve the soup with a large spoonful of the Romanesco garnish and generous drizzle of the chive butter.