Creamy Cauliflower Soup
Updated
Updated
This easy recipe for Creamy Cauliflower Soup is made with fresh cauliflower, potatoes, cream, rich vegetable broth, and sharp cheddar cheese. It’s silky smooth, cheesy, and so flavorful!
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When my daughter was younger, she hated cauliflower and me comparing it to a bride’s bouquet was the only way I could get her to eat it. Fast forward many years, now we joke about it and that maybe she’ll even serve something like this Creamy Cauliflower Soup at her wedding someday. She loves cauliflower. Whew!
If you’re looking for a nice bowl of comfort, this cauliflower soup recipe has your number! It’s really easy to make with some basic ingredients, but results in great depth of flavor.
How to Make Cauliflower Soup
You’ll start by sautéing diced onions, shallots, and garlic in butter, then adding potatoes and simmering all of that in a rich vegetable broth. Then the star of the show, cauliflower, along with herbs and seasonings get added to the pot. Sharp cheddar cheese and a hint of cream finish it off before blending into a creamy wonderful soup everyone will love.
Recipe Variations
- Vegetable broth can be replaced with chicken broth, but it will render a more mild flavor and is not my preference. Plus, the vegetable broth makes this soup vegetarian, accommodating more diets. But if chicken broth is all you have, by all means, use it!
- Whole milk or half-n-half can be used instead of the heavy cream, or you can simply omit it.
- The cayenne pepper in this recipe lends depth of flavor and does not make it spicy, but it can be left out.
- Add in some crispy crumbled bacon for more flavor.
- For even more depth of flavor, use roasted cauliflower! So good.
What to Serve with Cauliflower Soup
This soup pairs so well with skillet steak, baked chicken, or breaded pork chops!
It’s also wonderful on its own with some homemade garlic bread or focaccia.
This is a soup that is so creamy and rich, you feel like you’re indulging, but it’s actually healthy and there’s no guilt going back for second helpings!
Storing Leftovers
How long does cauliflower soup last in the fridge? This soup keeps well in the refrigerator, covered in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.
Can you freeze Cauliflower cheese soup? Yes, you can freeze this soup. Allow to cool completely, then transfer to an airtight freezer-safe container. It will freeze for up to 2 months.
Other Cauliflower Recipes
- Mashed Cauliflower Casserole
- Roasted Cauliflower
- One Pot Cauliflower Rice
- Turkey Sausage and Cauliflower Stir Fry
Other Soup Recipes We Love
I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Creamy Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium sweet onion, , diced
- 2 small shallots, , minced
- 2 cloves garlic, , minced
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 medium potato, , peeled and diced into 1/4-inch cubes
- 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 head cauliflower, , chopped into small florets
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, , plus more for garnish
- croutons, , for serving, optional
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and shallots; cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Season with the salt, then mix in the potato and vegetable broth.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, keep covered, and let cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
- Add in the cauliflower, dried mustard, thyme, cayenne, white pepper, and nutmeg; cook about 10 minutes more, until the cauliflower is tender.
- Stir in the heavy cream and cheddar cheese until melted.
- Puree with a hand-held immersion blender for a chunky texture (or a regular blender for a smoother texture, working in batches.) Mix in additional broth if the soup is too thick.
- Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- Serve warm in bowls, topped with additional shredded cheese and croutons.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.
Did you make this? Leave a rating below!
I do the cooking in our house. My wife prefers it that way.
I follow the recipe with minor changes to suit our pallet.
More garlic, 1% milk ( I don’t mind it watery )
Italian spices, more onion and potatoes.
I make this soup several times and of course quantities vary with what I have on hand.
Great soup !!!
This is definitely a keeper! So rich, and seasoning is perfect. I did leave it chunky, personal preference, I like a little chew. My husband loved it. I’ll be making this soup on repeat this fall and winter. Thank you!
Very delicious ! East to make and tasty – goes great with a sandwich or would be great as an app. I should’ve doubled the batch to freeze since I now have half a cauliflower to use up. Will make this again – a big hit with the Mrs.
Thank you for this recipe. I have tried several recipes for this soup ,but always found the taste bland. This recipe is full of flavour.
This was so tasty, will definitely make again.
I made this for dinner last night and my husband and I both loved it!I couldn’t wait to have it for breakfast this morning. This will become a regular at our house. Thank you!
This is so delicious! Just what I was looking for, amazing flavour!
This soup turned out better than expected! I added crumpled bacon and that finished it off perfectly. This will be a soup I make again for sure.
Fast to make, uses “on hand” ingredients, tastes delicious! Definitely a keeper!
Made this soup for lunch today…amazing flavour. So good. I’ve tried a few difference recipes and this one is going to be my “go to”. I used chicken broth and did cook the onions down a little longer on a lower setting (only because I was prepping the other ingredients). I also made some toasted croutons. It came out like restaurant quality…made by a chef – soup. Thank you!
Excellent recipe. I used 1% milk. And added celery. So tasty
I loved this recipe- potato wars a nice addition.
Made this last night and very skeptical husband LOVED it! Delicious! Will become a regular at my house. BTW I used frozen cauliflower and it was still great.
YUM!! This is almost identical to my broccoli soup. Loved it!
Thank you for the gift!! Can’t wait to try it!! Dinner is at my house this year!!
This soup is superb!! I added a bit extra cheese and some fresh thyme and rosemary, as well as, some dried italian herbs. It is amazing!
Yum! Can’t wait to try this….and trick my wee one into cauliflower consumption ;)
This soup was YUMMY!
This was amazing! Cauliflower and cheese are two of my favorite things! Such a perfect fall soup.
I made this soup this weekend. So delicious. I love that it is made with vegetable broth, I am a vegetarian.
I like the idea of using the mustard in the soup… will have to try this one.
This sounds delicious! I was just reading up on how to sneak more veggies into dishes for the kids. I’m certainly adding this to the list, Thanks!
Fall is PERFECT for soup! Excited to try this one!
I’m always looking for soup recipes. This one was so delicious. Thank you for posting!
Looks like a spiffed-up version of potato and leek soup! can’t wait to try it.
Adding this to my soup binder – it was excellent. Soup is my favorite!
Oooh, I’d love some broth! Especially now that it’s soup season. And your cauliflower soup sounds awesome-pawsome.
That soup sounds comforting and delicious!
Yum! Soup looks delicious and if you leave out the potato…Low Carb! Thanks
This tasted delicious!
this sounds fantastic!
I am in the same boat – I LOVE cauliflower, but my fiancee and his children, not so much. In fact, he won’t touch it – I can convince his eldest to try it, sometimes. Can’t wait to try the soup, and would love to win the broths!
Love the recipe .I had not added the mustard to it before, but it was a great addition.
this looks so good…I’ve been weirdly craving cauliflower lately!
awesome!
I’d like a sample for this one. Not sure how much cauliflower flavor comes through. But it looks good.
My wife hates cauliflower. I will make this when she go shopping and tell her is just lumpy cheese.
I’m totally making this for dinner tonight! Thanks!
Well I LOVE cauliflower (especially covered in cheese…swoon) and I also LOVE Pacific Foods. I have some of their veggie stock in my fridge as I type.
If it makes you feel any better, I hated all veggies as a kid, but look at me now! There’s still hope!
I’m planning on making this soup this week. I could eat soup every day and this sounds soooo good!
Oh I love soup in the fall !!!!
When I was a kid I wouldn’t touch the stuff either. Now I would rather eat that than broccoli!
The best cauliflower I’ve ever had was from a local farm in my farmshare. Once I’d had that I realized what I disliked about the store-bought stuff – it was old and had lost a lot of the sweetness (YES, there is sweet in there) that they have while fresh. I was eating florets of them raw and it was like they were already covered in butter, who needed to cook them up? Mmmm.
But in a cheese soup you can deal with almost any age of cauliflower. Whee.
Hi Marybeth – my sister gets farm fresh produce at work sometimes and brought me fresh cauliflower once. You’re right, it was sweet! So so good. And very different than the grocery store variety. Same thing with fresh eggs. I need to live on a farm!
I don’t like cauliflower either… I can’t quite decide what it is, maybe the texture?
I make a lot of soup during the cold months. I’ll bet this recipe would be good with some broccoli in it, too. Please enter me in the giveaway. One can never have enough home made soup!
The soup sounds very yummy! And I would love to be entered in the giveaway. :-)
Vegie broth in a BPA-free container? Sounds doubly good!
I think I would like this soup. I use Pacific Foods broth quite often–vegetable as I live with a vegetarian. It has great flavor.