alright, let's just put it out there. this roasted cauliflower soup is NOT the prettiest thing i've ever made. but its freaking delicious and worth every bite.
it's no secret that i love roasted cauliflower. its just SO GOOD. ya know? i've always been a veggie lover. and i really do love my veggies roasted, i prefer it over steamed any day. which is why when i set out to make a cauliflower soup i thought, why not roast the cauliflower first?! <- genius moment.
frankie once told me he hated cauliflower because it reminded him of “ghost broccoli.” is that like a thing? do other people hate cauliflower?
if so, that makes me INCREDIBLY sad. like the sadest of sad. cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, so its no surprise that it made it into my rotation of meals pretty early on into moving in with frankie. turns out, he'd just never had it roasted before.
oh and spoiler alert: he LOVES it now. as in, the first meal i cooked for him coming off busy season (where he ate out every single night because his work paid for it), i told him to pick a vegetable and i'd make it. take a wild guess what he picked….
did you pick cauliflower? i think it was sort of obvious, but in case you need to know you're right, it was… corn. jk guys! corn isn't even REALLY a vegetable, its a legume. of course it was cauliflower!
let's chat about the stem! do you throw yours out? UGHHH don't do it! use that sucker! it has just as much nutrition as the florets and when you cube and roast it its so good! or you can spiralize it! cauliflower & broccoli stems make GREAT noodles!
haiiiii purple! i love shallots! and i loovvvveee garlic! and i decided to roast them with the cauliflower because i knew they'd get all carmely and crispy and delicious. and wonderful. and… okay i'm done. sorry.
LOOK AT HOW PRETTY IT IS.
ugh. it took everything for me not to eat that pan! and um, my kitchen smelled SOOOO good when it was cooking. SO. GOOD. its sort of this homey smell now. it smells like sunday meal prep, but better because its delicious.
Can i tell you that cooking bacon in a dutch oven is like an amazing new revelation for me? the popping grease (for the most part) stays in the pan! its great. I highly recommend it. i also highly recommend that dutch oven. is so cute & pretty and VERSATILE. yes. (mine is lagoon, but looking at the prices, they went up pretty significantly for that color – carribbean blue and island spice red look like the cheapest colors right now. AND same day prime delivery! #win)
OH and don't forget to use sugar free/paleo bacon for this to be whole30!
ummmmmm. hello gorgeous! yeah, that's right. we're using ONE pan (and one baking sheet to roast the veggies) for everrryyyything. (technically, you could roast the cauliflower in the dutch oven, but you'd have to take it out to cook the bacon so at that point i'll just call this a two dish meal)
but don't you just want to swim in that pool and jump around on the floating cauliflower? no? just me? okay….
weirdos.
let's talk about color: roasting the cauliflower, shallots, and garlic together lets the shallots really get browned which adds a lot of the charcoal-y pieces in this soup. making it feel almost…. fire roasted. its brown. should we just accept that? it's NOT white. but you saw the coloring on the cauliflower in the before and after roast pictures. i'm not surprised by the coloring. and honestly, i think its kind of a nice twist.
when frankie saw this soup, he pulled a chicken & lentil curry on me. aka. said “i was really worried about eating this when i saw it.” by that he meant “it wasn't pretty so i was scared i wouldn't like it”
it wouldn't be on the blog if he told me it was bad. but he didn't just say it was good. he was like shocked after he took his first bite. he struggled to describe it… but landed on “it tastes just like roasted cauliflower” … i'm living with the smartest man in the world ladies. back off.
to be fair, i was nervous about this one too. i made it and almost didn't want to have a bite. but it's SO GOOD. its creamy (without dairy), its flavorful, its warm and homey. I've never had baked potato soup (no thanks cheese/cream) and i see a lot of blogs describing cauliflower soup as healthy baked potato soup. i HIGHLY doubt that. BUT. i'll tell you this is totally comfort food worthy. its comfort in a warm steaming bowl with bacon and homemade croutons.
(skip the croutons if you're whole30 – SORRY. it's the rules. but you'll love it enough that you'll make it post whole30 and can have croutons then, i promise.)
- 1 large head of cauliflower
- 2 shallots
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder (to taste – for roasting the cauliflower)
- 1/2 lb bacon
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- croutons, bacon bits, parsley (for topping)
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove cauliflower florets from the stem with a knife. Trim the leaves from the stem and chop into small pieces. Dice the shallots.
- Spread the florets, stem pieces, shallots, and whole garlic cloves out onto an un-greased baking sheet. Pour olive oil over the cauliflower and dust with roasting spices ([i]this is to taste, I normally use about 1/4 teaspoon of each spice[/i]).
- Roast the veggies for 40 minutes.
- After the roasting is complete, cook your bacon in a dutch oven. Remove the bacon (set it aside to dry and then chop it up for topping the soup!) and leave the bacon grease at the bottom of the pot. Add the cauliflower, garlic, shallots, broth, and water to the dutch oven.
- Bring the liquid and veggies to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 20 minutes. Using an [url href=”http://amzn.to/1M5bgRB” target=”_blank”]immersion blender[/url] blend the cauliflower into the liquid, until the soup is smooth and creamy. Alternatively, you could transfer the cauliflower and liquid to a full blender in small batches and carefully pulse until smooth.
- Dice your pieces of bread into large segments. Spray with olive oil and sprinkle desired seasonings ([i]i used salt, pepper, italian seasoning, and garlic powder[/i]). Spread the bread out on the baking sheet you used for the cauliflower.
- In your oven (preheated to 400 degrees from the cauliflower) bake for 5-10 minutes, turning the croutons a few times.
but it just looks so HOMEY. ugh. can i have it for breakfast? is that weird?
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