This soup is perfect for fall, with a creamy broth and lots of chunky vegetables. Make it a little rich with the addition of a few cashews, or leave them out for a still creamy but lower-fat soup. Rosemary adds great flavor and cannellini beans add heartiness.
Cauliflower Soup
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 6-8 (makes 9 cups) 1x
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- 1 ounce raw, unsalted cashews (about ¼ cup; optional)
- 1 medium onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 large carrots, chopped (about 1½ cups)
- 3 ribs celery, chopped (about 1½ cups)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic (3 to 4 cloves)
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- Pinch to ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional; these are spicy)
- 1 large head cauliflower, cored and cut into florets (about 8 cups or 1.75 lbs.)
- 4 cups water
- 1 can cooked cannellini beans (or 1.5 cups), drained and rinsed
Instructions
- Place the ½ cup of water and cashews into a blender, and blend briefly. Let this sit; we’ll come back to it in step 4.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of water in a soup pot over medium-high heat. When the water starts to sputter, add the onion, carrot, and celery, and cook while stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, adding a little water as needed to prevent sticking. Add the garlic, rosemary, paprika, and red pepper flakes, and stir for 1 more minute.
- Add the cauliflower, 4 cups water, and cooked white beans to the pot, and stir (the vegetables will be above the water line, which is fine). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook covered for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cauliflower and carrots are nice and tender; stir once during cooking. Remove from the heat.
- Blend the cashews and water in the blender until very smooth. Add 3 cups of the cooked soup (veggies and broth) to the blender, and blend until very smooth. Pour this back into the soup pot and stir.
Notes
If you are not using cashews, simply omit them and follow the recipe as written, starting with step 2. (The nutrition information below is with the cashews.)
I use an upright blender (my Vitamix) for this creamy soup because I find that a hand-held immersion blender is not ideal for completely creaming a portion of the soup while leaving the remaining portion chunky. But you can use an immersion blender if you like.
To make in the Instant Pot: If using cashews, do step 1. Then place the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, rosemary and cauliflower—including the leaves and stems if you like—into the Instant Pot (these can be left in large chunks if desired since we'll be blending the soup later). Add 5 cups water or broth. Set to 8 minutes on high pressure. When done, release pressure and puree with an immersion blender to your desired consistency (I like some lumps in mine). Stir in the spices (paprika, red pepper flakes) and beans. Set to 2 minutes on high pressure. When done, if using the cashews, blend them with the water (from step 1) and stir into the soup; or add ¼ to ½ cup of unsweetened nondairy milk for an easier way to add richness without using the cashews and water in step 1.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup (308 g); with cashews
- Calories: 90.4
- Sugar: 4.2g
- Sodium: 61.2mg
- Fat: 2.3g
- Saturated Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 14.5g
- Fiber: 5.0g
- Protein: 4.8g
- Cholesterol: 0
Above: I like to cut the onion, celery and carrot on the small side for this recipe. In the middle is one tablespoon of finely chopped garlic.
Above: This shows step 3, right before covering and cooking for 20 minutes. The water/broth does not need to cover the cauliflower.
THANK YOU for giving us such healthy AND delicious recipes -- LOVE the photos too!
Thanks Marian! 😉
Hilarious lol Shelia cousino that food is all about raw vegetables myself I would cook the veggies 5 to 7 minutes that way raw vegetables won't😚 cool down the stock in the soup the veggies remain a good c from ooking texture added t too to you
Can't wait to try this. Thank you! I'm making your hearty lentil stew and beef less stew this week. Will try this next week 🙂
Yay! 🙂 Thanks Alex!
Hi Cathy. Can’t wait to try this wonderful new soup recipe. If I make it in the Instant Pot do you think the 4 cups of water should be reduced?
Thanks!
I think you usually add more to the IP, but not sure how much more. If you try it, let me know what you find out. 🙂
Hi Cathy. I made this soup in the instant pot twice. First I made it for 6 minutes and released the pressure after 10 minutes. The second time I set it for 4 minutes and doubled the spices and the beans. I again released the pressure after 10 minutes. The cauliflower was very soft the first time and that’s why I reduced the cooking time from 6 minutes to 4. Cooking with the instant pot very often requires an increased amount of spices so I doubled them. Either way this is a winning recipe. Thanks for a delicious soup recipe! 👍
Great! Thanks Iris! 😉
Love your recipes. Can't wait to try this one. Love your cookbook too! Thanks.
Thanks Judy! 😉
Has anyone made a similar soup with garbanzo beans? I thought I had cannelloni beans, but turns out I do not.
Garbanzos are not soft like other white beans, so may not work; but we do use them in hummus, which gets creamy. Not sure, but if it works, let me know. 🙂
I made this soup today and it was delicious! Love the fresh rosemary. Thank you. I modified the recipe to make the soup in the Instant Pot, and added a medium-hot chili pepper.
Thanks Kathy! 🙂 Email me your IP instructions, or comment here, and I'll try it and add to the post.
Thanks Kathy! 🙂 Email me your IP instructions, or comment here, and I'll try it and add to the post.
This recipe is soooo DELICIOUS! Just made it this eve and it was quick, too. I accidentally forgot the beans, next time I will definitely use them. I pureed mine more, for a creamer soup.
Yay! So glad to hear this. 🙂 Thanks for the comment Serena!
Loved this and so easy!! Thank you!!
Creamy, light, and flavorful. Mine used dried rosemary as that was all I had. I imagine fresh rosemary, as the recipe calls for, would have made it even better.
Thanks Mary! 🙂 Yes, I should add a measurement for dried rosemary too; how much did you use?
How much dried rosemary did u use?
This was a delicious soup to serve on a chilly autumn night, along with homemade rosemary bread and a salad. The pale yellow-orange color is appealing. I appreciated the advice to use the Vitamix vs. an immersion blender, as that really made a difference in the lovely creaminess. The veggies cooked rather quickly, though. After adding the cauliflower, it only took about 10 min. (And my veggies were probably a bit bigger than those pictured.). Maybe it was that I used a Dutch oven instead of a regular soup pot.
Thanks Sue! I will edit the veggie cooking time a bit. Glad you enjoyed it! 😉
Kathy, how often does your newsletter come out? I haven't gotten one. Guess I should check my spam.
thank you for this recipe!
This is a great tasting soup. First time on your site. I took a Plant Based Food class at Kaiser last weekand your blog site is listed as a good place for recipes and blog. Thank you, will continue to follow this site. ~Christine
Yay! Thanks Christine! 🙂
Also purchased the Straight Up Food cookbook ! All the ingredients for the Apple Crisp is just sitting on the counter, waiting for the Cook 🙂
R all of these recipes on the website in your cookbook?
Hi Donna, no; so recipes like this soup won't be in the book since it's too new (the book came out 2 years ago). Aside from that, there are some recipes in the book not on the website and some on the website not in the book.
I made this soup tonight minus the celery which I didn't have but added in more carrot and some spinach. I used the cashews; rich and creamy. It was delicious. Thanks you!
I made this soup last night for an all-plant-based dinner and it was just delicious! I used the cashews and followed the recipe exactly. Guests were oohing and ahhing! Thanks!
Linda Driver
Yay!! Love it--thanks Linda! 🙂
I made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious. I added sliced fresh mushrooms because I had them and figured why not. Otherwise I didn’t change a thing. This is definitely going to be added to my regular rotation!!!
Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes!! This journey would be so bland without you 🙂
Aw, thanks Julia! 😉
Hi Cathy,
I made your cauliflower soup tonight and absolutely loved it. Many thanks for posting it!
Shannon
Thanks Shannon! 😉
2nd time making this soup - love it!!!!
Hi Martine, yay! New recipes feel a little insecure sometimes, so this is great to hear! 😉
Just made this cauliflower soup and it's fantastic! Thank you, Cathy.
Hi Kathy, could I use frozen cauliflower instead of fresh? Thanks!
I think that would be fine. 🙂
The soup turned out wonderful! I didn't have cashews so omitted them.
I added mushrooms, bell peppers, smoked paprika and liquid smoke. Taste delicious!
I made this tonight, exactly as written. It is so creamy and overall delicious. I will definitely keep this recipe to make again. Thank you!
Made this today. Excellent flavor. I am trying to convert to SOS free diet, and no salt is, for me, most difficult to give up.
Great soup!
This soup really celebrates the vibrant, satisfying taste of cauliflower. So creamy and rich, and that's without the cashews. The white beans really add a lot, I am going to keep a supply of cans of them in my pantry so I can make this often as my CSA box is often filled with cauliflower. I love the rosemary in this dish, and in all the recipes that you add it. My rosemary bush outside now expects me to come at it with scissors in hand. Next time I make this, I am thinking a adding a peeled and diced medium russet potato to try to imitate the creaminess the cashews must have provided. Thank you Cathy, yet another keeper.
Yeah! 🙂 Thanks Jan! I have a rosemary bush too that I clip from often. Glad you enjoyed the soup. 😉
I made this soup last night and it was kind of bland without the red pepper flakes so I added them in. My husband doesn't like hot and spicy so I tend to leave anything that alludes to that in our food. Once I added in the red pepper flakes the taste was great! It added just enough to make it interesting, and delicious.
Ok, I made this in the IP. It turned out great. I put everything in the IP except the cashews. I set the IP on 0 time and did a quick release. Then I blended the cashews and water, next I add the three cups of cooked soup from the IP after I released the pressure, blended it up and added it back to the soup. Since I only cooked the soup at 0 minutes the vegetables were not mush they actually had a great consistency just like I cooked them on the stove. I am totally going to be making this a lot it was quick and easy, the taste was amazing.
Hi Cliff! 🙂 That's great! Thank you for sharing your process; I will give this a try.
I did the same as Cliff only I did 2 min in IP I had no beans and I made zucchini pasta 🙁 We let it cool down completely since it is summer and very hot, and ate it for breakfast - incredible, thank you so much Cathy.
Yum! Thanks Petra! 😉
I made this for first time and really love the creamy texture . I didn't have fresh rosemary but had dried and so glad I included it. I may grow rosemary now! I didn't have beans ready so skipped. Was fine.
Thanks Mary-louise! Good for you making modifications; it's all good in the end using plant foods; hard to mess up. 😉
Hi Cathy, what do you think about halving the amt of cauliflower and making the other half broccoli?
I think that would work just fine. 🙂
Hi. I'm not a big fan of rosemary. What can I substitute it for? Thank you.
You could use fresh tarragon or basil, but I would add these more toward the end, as they are more fragile than rosemary. 🙂
Amazing recipe. On the stove now and can't wait to finish it.
Thanks Cheryl! 😉
I needed to use up an abundance of carrots so I followed this recipe with 2 changes. I doubled the amount of carrots (I had no cauliflower in the house), and I added 1/2 of a red pepper chopped small. I love your recipes Cathy and always know that if I keep the spice amounts and ingredients just as you write them I am going to end up with a wonderful taste even if I change the veggies. You are my go-to gal.
Aw, thanks Maureen! 🙂 That sounds like a great substitution!
I have made this recipe twice on the stove. It is delicious. My husband calls it a keeper.
Yay! 😉 Thanks Kathleen!
I really don't like cauliflower much at all so I often look for recipes that make it palatable for me. This was really good 5/5. I added a splash of soy sauce is my only change. I pureed almost all of the soup and left a few carrots and some cauliflower florets in it. I love pureed soups but I decided to leave some veggies whole for a change.It was so creamy and delicious thanks to the beans and cashews. Also nice to get some protein in a veggie soup. My ultra picky 8 year old granddaughter liked it minus the whole veggies.
That's great, Janine! 🙂 Glad your granddaughter liked it as well! Tnx for the comment!
My absolute favorite soup!! Even my Facebook friends are trying it and loving it!! Thank you for your great recipes!!
Yay!! 🙂 Thanks Debra!
I made this soup for the second time this morning. I love it because it is so warm and comforting! I omitted the cashew step because I cannot eat too many nuts and it was delicious. Thank you, Cathy!
Thanks Viola! 😉
This cauliflower soup is absolutely delicious. Thank you so very much again Kathy your creations are amazing.
Thank you! 😉
Tried this soup tonight and we really liked it! So creamy, but with plenty of vegetable chunks, too. My husband said he would have thought it was a cheese soup if he didn’t know better.
Cathy, thank you for this yummy recipe. Your cauliflower soup using lovely, spices Rosemary herbs turned out beautifully!
Wonderful! 🙂 Thanks Millie!
This soup is delicious! How long will it last in the refrigerator? And can it be frozen?
In the fridge I'd use it up before 5 days; I think it would freeze fine. Thanks! 😉
My favorite soup!!
Great soup! I made this soup and it is very tasty and full of delicious flavors. A perfect way to use up cauliflower when you have too much. At the end I added diced potatoes and whole grain pasta to the soup to make it a full starchy meal! 🙂
I love this soup! It is delicious and full of flavor. The perfect summer soup dish!