Creamy Cauliflower Soup

This creamy cauliflower soup is a delicious dairy-free staple any time of the year, but especially during the cooler months of the year. It’s velvety, smooth, comforting, so easy to make, and packed with flavor. The added nutrition and fiber make it the perfect addition to your meal or delicious enough to enjoy alone as a light meal.

Cauliflower Soup: A Perfect Alternative to Potato Soup

If you love creamy soups but don’t care for the cream, you’re going to absolutely love this dairy-free cauliflower soup. It’s uber smooth and creamy, a perfect match for Fall and Winter. It’s so easy to make and only requires a few simple ingredients, with cauliflower being the star. Even if you’re not a big fan of cauliflower, you’ll be amazed by the delicious flavor created by blending it with garlic, onions, and other ingredients.  All of the ingredients work together to make one creamy and uber delicious comforting soup.

Why Cauliflower?

So why bother with cauliflower?  Well, I’ve always been a bigger fan of potatoes, but that was before I started expanding my palette to other vegetables a few years ago. Cauliflower contains many benefits, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other phytonutrients. It’s a vegetable I enjoy on a regular basis, add to my smoothie (a total game-changer), and cook in a variety of ways – roast, steam, sautee, the list goes on. There are many ways of adding this vegetable to your diet and soup is one of my personal favorites!

How to Make Cauliflower Soup

Making cauliflower soup just requires a bit of prepping, sauteeing, simmering, blending, and you’re done!  If you have an immersion blender, you just need a pot and don’t have to bother cleaning out the blender once you’re done.

To make the cauliflower soup, warm up avocado oil in a large pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5-7 minutes until the onions are fragrant and start to appear translucent. Add the cauliflower and broth. Stir well, cover the pot, and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.

Turn off the heat and either transfer to your blender (in small batches) or using your immersion blender. If you use a blender, be really careful. Blend until smooth and creamy. Feel free to add more broth if the soup is too thick. Transfer back into the pot and adjust seasoning and needed. While it’s now ready to serve, I like to warm it up a bit since the process of blending can cool down the soup and we don’t like lukewarm soup around here.

Skip the Cream + Use Cashews Instead

Instead of using heavy cream, this soup calls for cashews as a delicious dairy-free alternative. Adding a nut like cashews not only adds more nutrition to your soup, it’s also a great source of plant protein. If for any reason you’re sensitive or allergic to (or simply not a fan of) cashews, you can skip them altogether. The soup will still be creamy and delicious, thanks to the cauliflower and onions.

If you do choose to use the cashews, be sure use raw cashews and soak them in clean, filtered water for about 30 minutes. This will help tremendously when blending and make them more digestible but isn’t needed if you have a high-speed blender. Once soaked, don’t forget to rinse the cashews before adding them to the soup.

Vegetable Broth for Added Flavor

While I usually don’t bother with vegetable broth much, I love the flavor it adds to this soup. However, the garlic and onions offer the soup plenty of flavor so you’ll be okay with it, but f you do have vegetable broth sitting in the pantry or enjoy making your own (which I highly recommend), go for the broth.

If you choose to buy pre-made broth, make sure it’s organic and doesn’t have any questionable ingredients. The shorter the ingrdients list, with ingredients you recognize, the better.

Make Ahead + Freeze!

This soup is such a great candidate for food prep. Not only is it easy to make, but it also freezes really well for those who like to cook in batches. If freezing, I recommend dividing the soup into serving sizes so you can easily reheat it. And if you have any cauliflower left over, roast them and adding them as a garnish.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think.  I love seeing your photos tagged #realandvibrant on Instagram!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Creamy Vegan Cauliflower Soup

This creamy cauliflower soup is the perfect side or delicious enough to enjoy alone.  Either way, I’m pretty sure you won’t stop with one bowl.  This recipe is a staple in my kitchen and always a crowd-pleaser!

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Total Time1 hr

Course: Soup

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

Soup

• 1 head of cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Toppings (Optional)

• fresh thyme
• extra-virgin olive oil
• thinly sliced green onions or chives

Instructions

• Heat oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.
• Add cauliflower florets, vegetable broth (or water), milk, and salt.
• Cover and simmer until the cauliflower florets are tender, about 25-30 minutes.
• Add the rinsed cashews and cook for 2 more minutes
• Carefully transfer the soup into a blender and puree until it’s smooth and creamy. You may need to work in smaller batches depending on the size of your blender. 
• Once pureed, taste and adjust the salt and pepper accordingly. 
• Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish.

This recipe was originally published on October 23, 2016. Since then, it’s been freshened up with new pictures, commentary, and made even more delicious!