Roasted cauliflower and bacon turn this simple soup into a hearty and delicious treat. Whip up some healthy and delicious roasted cauliflower soup for your next hearty lunch!
I had a brief and intense fling with cauliflower during my brief and intense fling with the Atkins diet…the one that says you can have all the bacon that you want, so long as you don’t even THINK about eating one single solitary carbohydrate. Somewhere along the line I realized that pureed cauliflower tasted remarkably close to potatoes, which were forbidden.
Atkins and I had to break up quickly due to my inability to live without pasta, but one of the best things it gave me was a love for all things cauliflower...which in turn has lead to this scrumptious roasted cauliflower soup. Ready to get more delicious cauliflower into your life? Let’s make it!
This is a great make-ahead soup..it doesn’t take that long to make, but if you want to make it ahead anyway it reheats like a dream. First you need to procure a cauliflower.
You start by roasting the florets from one good-sized head of cauliflower with a little bit of olive oil. Cut them up pretty small – about 2 inch pieces or so – and don’t worry about being neat as they are going to get pureed down the line.
Once you have your roasted cauliflower ready, you’re going to cook up some bacon in a Dutch oven or other heavy pot until it is nice and crisp. Scoop out the bacon, and then cook the soup ingredients…onion, roasted cauliflower, chicken broth, some herbs and spices….until everything is nice and tender. Now get out your handy blender and blend away until everything is smooth and creamy.
All that’s left to do now is stir in a little milk and cheese, heat it up (this is the part where you can reheat it if you were all organized and made it ahead of time), toss that bacon on top and serve it up. I think if I had known about this particular recipe during my Atkins flirtation I might actually have been able to give up the pasta.
Maybe. We’ll never know!
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Prep Time: 15 minutes- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop and Oven
- Cuisine: American
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Roasted cauliflower and bacon turn this simple soup into a hearty and delicious treat. Whip up some healthy and delicious roasted cauliflower soup for your next hearty lunch!
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cauliflower, florets trimmed off and cut into 1–2 inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces
- 1 cup chopped sweet onion
- 3 cups chicken broth (I like the Pacific and Imagine boxed brands)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme plus extra for garnish
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus extra for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 and line a cookie sheet with foil. Toss cauliflower with oil, place on prepared sheet and roast until slightly browned, about 30 minutes. Cool.
- Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven or other large pot until crispy. Remove with slotted spoon, leaving the bacon grease in the pot.
- Cook onion in the bacon grease over medium high heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add cauliflower, broth, herbs and spices and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
- Working in batches if necessary, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Return to pot and add milk and cheese. Heat over medium heat until soup is warm.
- Garnish with bacon, extra cheese and extra thyme and serve.
Updated (and made healthier!) from a previous Framed Cooks post!
this looks yummy! theres so many different ways to eat cauliflower!
Yes! Have you tried the “mashed potato” version? So good. :)
Do you think this would work with broccoli instead of cauliflower? I don’t like cauliflower, but I’m always looking for new broccoli soup recipes.
Hmm. I’m going to say yes, because broccoli is a close cousin…I would include some of the broccoli stalk as well as the flowers since broccoli flowers aren’t as dense as cauliflower. If you try it will you let us know how it turns out?
Well, I tried it. It was pretty thin, so I guess I didn’t include enough of the stalk. Also, roasting kind of dehydrated the broccoli flowers, so they formed little pieces that didn’t blend well into the rest of the soup. (Probably I should have blended it more.) The soup itself tasted fine but not much different or better than various other broccoli soups I’ve made. However, what made a real difference was the bacon! From now on, I’ll be using bacon in my broccoli soups.
I love to roast cauliflower with Olive Oil and Nutmeg. How do you think it would be with this recipe?
I think it would be just perfect!!
I looked at the recipe again and saw nutmeg listed. Sorry! But thanks for the reply. I’ll probably just add more than what is called for when I get the chance to make it.
There’s no such thing as too much nutmeg in my book!
I could never give up pasta…or soup for that matter! With this I”m pretty sure I could have the best of both worlds!
You definitely could!!
Me too.
Soup is always my fav. I don’t mind to make it every meals.
but I don’t like cauliflower. is there any veggie to instead?
A few folks have asked me about making this with broccoli…I think that would work if you used some of the stems as well as the florets. It will probably be a little thinner than the cauliflower version but I bet it works!
Mmmm… Looks delish. I had a cauliflower walnut soup in Thailand last month. I’d love to try this out.
Cauliflower and walnuts – perfection!
I absolutely love roasted cauliflower. This is a must-have for me!!
Isn’t it the best?? Hope you love it.
Looks great and sounds delicious!
Thank you! It’s one of our faves!
Ohh, how I’ve missed seeing your posts! It’s so great to catch up on them, finally. Hope all has been well–though I can’t see how it wouldn’t be, considering you’re here sharing one of my favorite soups ever! It’s one of the only things for which I’m willing to bust out my cauliflower-worthy knives and do all that prep work for a taste of heaven!! <3
Ala!! Hope all is well with you too – and yay for it being cauliflower soup season!!
I’ve made roasted cauliflower and chickpea soup in the past- Just add a drained, rinsed can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans to the roasting pan, and put it all in the blender- It’s tasty and a great way to add more fiber and protein to an already delicious soup!
Hi Sara! This sounds like an amazing combo of cauliflower soup and hummus (my fave!) and I am definitely trying this – thank you!