Cauliflower

In a family with gluten, dairy, soy, egg, and nut intolerances, indulging in creamy anything is quite rare. My oldest son and I are big soup lovers, though, and he especially loves creamy soups, so I’ve tried my hand at several vegan recipes using coconut milk, but we just aren’t always in the mood for the subtle taste of coconut. I’ve discovered that with enough olive oil in the cooking process, and by roasting the veggies first, we can end up with a creamy soup without any dairy or dairy alternatives whatsoever – and the taste is truly superb.

Growing up, my dad would frequently bring Chinese food home for dinner. Those amazing take-out meals usually consisted of lemon chicken, chow fun noodles, and Chinese chicken salad. Every single dish was always mouthwateringly good, but do you know which dish was the star? That’s right—lemon chicken. That unique, tangy, sweet sauce truly made it what it was. If you open up my family’s refrigerator, you’ll mostly see bottles of various sauces, and not much else (we’re sauce people, or connoisseurs, if you will).