Cauliflower Soup

Homemade soups are one of the best ways of incorporating more veggies into one's diet because they are easy to make and taste delicious.

When it comes to fall and winter veggies, cauliflower is hard to beat; a homemade roasted cauliflower soup is one of our favorite cozy meals.

It has a creamy, buttery texture and a mellow nutty, and cheesy taste, although there's no cheese in it.

Cauliflower

Pick a large white cauliflower head to make an off-white colored cauliflower soup. You can use both the cauliflower florets and stem.

You can use purple, orange, or green cauliflower to make the soup more colorful.

Garlic, onion, and thyme

We roast crushed garlic with the peel to protect the clove from burning, chunks of onion and fresh thyme leaves off their stem.

Roasting those veggies in the oven makes the richest cauliflower soup ever. The garlic and the onion get soft and caramelized to perfection. The thyme infuses everything with its pleasant aroma.

Remember to discard the garlic peel before tossing the roasted garlic cloves in the blender.

Olive oil

We use extra virgin olive oil to help the cauliflower, garlic, and onion roast and caramelize in the oven without burning or getting overly dry.

We recommend extra virgin because it tastes better (fruitier and nuttier) and is richer in antioxidants than any other oil. Antioxidants make the oil stable at high temperatures, preventing it from burning.

Salt and pepper

Sea salt or kosher salt for taste. We add it to the veggies before roasting them. Freshly ground black pepper for a fragrant peppery aroma.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg is optional, so if you don't have it in your pantry, go ahead and make the soup without it.

However, for us, a cauliflower soup wouldn't be complete without it. Nutmeg has a cozy, autumny flavor, with mild notes of clove. You'll only need a small amount to make this cauliflower soup exceptional.

If you are thinking of buying nutmeg, then we recommend getting the whole nutmeg that you can quickly grate at home as you need it. It'll last you longer than ground nutmeg without losing its aroma.

Vegetable broth

You can make your own or use store-bought veg stock. We prefer it to the chicken broth so that vegans and vegetarians can enjoy this recipe too.

Creamy ingredient

We have two favorite ingredients to make this cauliflower soup recipe extra creamy and velvety. They are butter (dairy-free or regular butter) and potato.

Potatoes are great to add creaminess to soups because they have a mildly earthy but mostly neutral flavor and are rich in starch.

When blended, the starch in the potato binds with the cauliflower making this soup the creamiest, even creamier than soup made with butter.

To use potatoes in a soup, you must first cook them till soft. You can microwave a large potato whole, pierced with a fork and with the skin on, for 5 to 10 minutes.

Alternatively, boil it whole with the skin on, for about 30 minutes, until soft throughout. Then peel it, and add it to the blender.

Heavy cream (regular or dairy-free works, too) - add about ½ cup or more to taste.

Garnish

We like to garnish our cauliflower soup with homemade croutons, roasted chickpeas, or a parmesan gremolata made with grated parmesan cheese, lemon zest, and finely chopped fresh parsley.

The recipe is gluten-free as long as you don't add croutons.

Step 1: Bake

Preheat the oven to 410°F or 210°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Rinse the cauliflower, dry it, and chop it into chunks. Add crushed garlic with the peel, chopped onion, fresh thyme leaves picked off their stem, salt, black pepper, and olive oil.

Toss the veggies, spread them on the baking tray, and bake for 30 minutes. Discard the garlic peel before blending the veggies.

Step 2: Blend

You can blend this cauliflower soup with an immersion or regular blender. The immersion blender will produce a coarser soup; the regular blender will make a velvety smooth one. They are both delicious.

Note: If you make the soup with the potato, remember to microwave it for about 7 to 10 minutes or boil it for about 30 minutes, until soft throughout.

Immersion blender

To a dutch oven, add the roasted veggies, 2 cups of vegetable broth, grated nutmeg to taste, and butter or cooked and peeled potato.

Blend for a couple of minutes until your reach your desired texture. Then, add more vegetable broth to reach your desired consistency.

Note: we like our cauliflower soup with 3 cups of vegetable broth.

Regular blender

Add the roasted veggies, the vegetable broth, grated nutmeg to taste, and the butter or cooked and peeled potato.

Blend at high speed until you reach your desired texture and consistency. Add more vegetable broth if necessary.

Note: we did this in a large Vitamix blender jug, and it all fit in perfectly; however, if your blender is smaller, you might have to blend the soup in batches.

Step 3: Warm up and serve

In a dutch oven or large saucepan, simmer the soup on medium heat for a couple of minutes to warm it up. Taste and adjust for salt, pepper, and nutmeg before serving it in a bowl.

We have three favorite toppings for this roasted cauliflower soup:

1. Roasted chickpeas or crispy air fryer chickpeas.

You can make them easily with canned chickpeas, salt, olive oil, and optionally a spice of your choice (paprika, curry powder, garlic powder).

We like them with cauliflower soup because they add crunch and healthy plant protein to the meal.

2. Homemade croutons or air fryer croutons.

Crispy little cubes of toasted bread seasoned with olive oil and other spices, croutons are perfect for soup because they add crunch and flavor.

3. Parmesan gremolata.

Gremolata is an Italian condiment with chopped parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. In this parmesan gremolata, we substitute a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan for garlic; then, we mix it with some freshly chopped parsley and a bit of lemon zest.

Sprinkle this delicacy on top of your roasted cauliflower soup to add zesty, savory, and cheese notes from these three delicious ingredients.

Store cauliflower soup in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. Reheat in the microwave for 2 minutes or in a small saucepan on the stove.

You can freeze this recipe for up to 6 months. Let it cool down completely, transfer it to a freezer-friendly container, and freeze it. Thaw it in the refrigerator over a few hours or in the microwave. Do not freeze multiple times.

Questions

Are you looking for more creamy and delicious soup recipes? Check out our:

• Roasted sweet potato soup
• Easy tofu soup with seasonal variations
• Delicious zucchini soup
• Roasted eggplant soup
• Earthy Tuscan soup with white beans
• Creamy roasted butternut squash soup
• Nourishing and tasty lentil soup
• Delicious red lentil curry

For more cauliflower inspiration, check out our:

• Roasted cauliflower
• Delicious cauliflower pasta
• Air fryer cauliflower
• Cauliflower salad with creamy dressing
• Mediterranean-inspired cauliflower lentil salad
• Cauliflower rice with parsley and lemon
• Red pepper pasta with roasted cauliflower

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