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Last updated on June 5th, 2019 at 12:19 pm
This creamy healthy keto cauliflower soup is loaded with onions, roasted cauliflower, cheddar cheese, bacon and parsley. Easy to make and full of flavour, the whole family will love it!
Keto Cauliflower Soup for the Whole Family
This keto cauliflower soup is the perfect soup recipe to make for a hungry family. It’s extremely filling since it’s a pretty hearty soup made with lots of cauliflower, cheese and heavy cream.
My favourite part about this creamy roasted cauliflower soup is that it’s loaded with cheddar and bacon. The combination of cream, cheddar, bacon and cauliflower is just heavenly, which is why this roasted cauliflower soup recipe is so popular at home! Kids to adults are guaranteed to love it because let’s face it, who doesn’t love cheese? And c’mon, cauliflower soup with bacon is just something everyone wants to eat! Whenever I hear the word bacon, I’m always up for it!
This low carb cauliflower soup really reminds of a potato and leek soup because it has that thick and creamy texture to it. This recipe is my low carb take on a loaded potato soup.
I tend to love making soups that are super hearty and filled with vegetables and meat, just like my low carb zuppa toscana soup or my low carb beef stew. They’re the best kinds of soups and stews because they fill you right up and warm you up!
What is Roasted Cauliflower Soup?
The secret to this amazing healthy cauliflower soup is all in the cauliflower and how you prepare it. Anyone can make a cauliflower soup by just boiling some cauliflower and blending it with some broth and cream, but boiled cauliflower turns out pretty bland in flavor.
So to make the most delicious keto cauliflower soup, you will need to roast your cauliflower florets first in the oven with a few spices. This ensures that the cauliflower get that beautiful roasted flavour and has time to absorb the spices before blending in a soup.
Before blending the cauliflower with the other ingredients, I personally like to put about 1/4 of the roasted cauliflower to the side and then blend the 3/4 that’s left. I recommend doing this so that you can have some cauliflower chunks in your soup once the soup is done cooking.
So remember, roasting the cauliflower is the key to making the world’s best cream of cauliflower soup.
What Spices go in Roasted Cauliflower Soup?
The spices that go in this easy cauliflower soup are pretty simple. Fresh thyme, fresh parsley, salt and pepper. I suggest using a combination of different peppercorns to give it that nice kick. I used a blend of black peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorns and pink peppercorns.
If you don’t have fresh thyme, I wouldn’t worry about it, but I really suggest using fresh parsley as dry parsley doesn’t really work well in terms of flavour for this creamy roasted cauliflower soup recipe.
How to make Keto Cauliflower Soup
The first thing you’ll want to do is cut your cauliflower into small florets and line them up on a large baking sheet. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil (or avocado oil) and sprinkle some fresh thyme (or dried), salt and pepper all over. Use your hands to blend the spices and oil together with the cauliflower.
Place in the oven and roast for a good 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the cauliflower should be fork tender and a bit golden brown.
While the cauliflower is roasting, pan fry your bacon slices until crispy. Take them out of the hot pan and transfer them to a kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. Let them cool down a bit and then chop them up into pieces. This will be used as a topping when the cauliflower soup is done cooking.
In a large pot, add some butter, garlic cloves and onions. Add the rest of the thyme, salt and pepper. Fry for a few minutes on medium heat until the onions are tender.
Once the cauliflower has finished roasting, place 3/4 of it into the large pot and keep the last 1/4 for topping.
Cook the cauliflower with the onions for a couple of minutes and then add the bone broth to the pot.
The next step will be to blend everything together. With an immersion blender, puree the soup as much as you can. You shouldn’t have any cauliflower florets left.
Once pureed, the next step is to add the heavy cream. You can add it all in one shot and just mix to incorporate.
Add the cheddar cheese a little bit at a time to ensure that the cheese melts properly. Finally, add some chopped parsley and mix everything together.
The low carb cauliflower soup is now ready to serve.
You’ll then add the extra roasted cauliflower, chopped bacon, shredded cheddar, chopped parsley and some extra pepper over each bowl of roasted cauliflower soup. These toppings are the best part about this loaded cauliflower soup and make the soup taste that much better!
Can I Make this Healthy Cauliflower Soup Ahead of Time?
Yes, of course. This healthy cauliflower soup can be made ahead and just get warmed up either in the microwave or stove top. It will last about a week in the fridge so make sure you serve it before it goes bad.
Is this Easy Cauliflower Soup Freezer-Friendly?
Yes, it is! You can easily freeze this creamy roasted cauliflower soup. Just make sure to freeze it into separate portions or else you’ll need to defrost the whole batch when you want to use it.
To defrost, I would defrost it a few minutes in the microwave and finish off on the stove top to make sure that cream and cheese reheats properly.
What Can I use instead of Heavy Cream?
For the sake of creaminess and carb count, I highly suggest using heavy cream, but if you don’t have any on hand, then you can use any nut milk (almond milk, cashew milk, macadamia milk) or cow milk.
Do I Have to Use Cheddar Cheese? Can I Use Another Cheese Instead?
Of course. This cauliflower cheese soup recipe works with any kind of shredded cheese. Some good cheeses to consider using are gouda, monterey jack, havarti, white cheddar, emmental, parmesan, and so on. I don’t recommend making it with a blue cheese or a brie type of cheese as it simply won’t work.
I Don’t Like Cauliflower. What Can I Use Instead?
If you don’t like cauliflower, how about trying broccoli? Broccoli is just as delicious and low in carbs. It also goes very well with cream, cheese and bacon.
Can I just Add my Cooked Bacon to the Soup and not Use it as a Topping?
I wouldn’t recommend doing that because the bacon will get all soggy inside the low carb cauliflower soup. It tastes much better when you add the crispy bacon to the top of the soup when serving.
What Can I Use to Blend this Keto Cauliflower Soup?
I used an immersion blender directly in the pot and blended everything together, but if you don’t have one, you can always transfer everything to a powerful blender and mix everything properly. Once blended, you would simply add it back to the pot to finish off cooking.
Can I use Frozen Cauliflower Instead?
Yes, you can. But since frozen cauliflower is already boiled, you would skip the roasting part and just add it to the chicken broth. Just remember it won’t be as good as fresh cauliflower.
What Broth is Best to Use?
For this recipe, I used homemade chicken bone broth that I had made earlier. I recommend using bone broth if you have any on hand. If not, any store bough chicken broth, vegetable broth or beef broth will work.
How Can I Make the Soup Less Thick?
If you want a thinner cauliflower soup, simply increase the amount of chicken bone broth and heavy cream that you used. Also add a bit more salt and pepper to taste.
Final Tips & Recaps
Before making this easy cauliflower soup recipe, make sure to read the following tips and substitution options!
- Instead of cauliflower, you can use broccoli.
- Instead of heavy cream, you can use any nut milk (almond milk, cashew milk, macadamia milk) or cow milk (more carbs).
- Instead of cheddar cheese, you can use any type of shredded cheese.
- Instead of chicken bone broth, you can use any homemade broth, or store-bough chicken broth, vegetable broth, or beef broth.
- Make sure to roast the cauliflower before adding it to the soup. It tastes much better than simply boiled cauliflower.
- Make sure to use fresh parsley and not dried.
- Make sure to add the cheddar cheese a little bit at a time to ensure an even melt and help it not clump up.
Healthy Keto Cauliflower Soup
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 2 heads cauliflower
- 1 onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- 4 tbsp chopped parsley (fresh)
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tsp thyme (fresh or dried)
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper (I used a mix of black pepper, sichuan pepper and pink pepper.)
- 3 tbsp olive oil (or avocado oil)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 180 ml heavy cream (or any nut milk or cow milk)
- 1000 ml chicken bone broth (or chicken broth, vegetable broth, beef broth)
- 8 slices bacon
- 170 g cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Cut the cauliflower into small florets. Line them on a large baking sheet and drizzle the olive oil all over. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of thyme all over. With your hands, massage the spices and oil all over the florets.
- Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The cauliflower should be fork tender and a bit golden brown on top when done.Once done, take it out of the oven.
- While the cauliflower is roasting, let's make the crispy bacon.Pan fry your bacon slices until crispy. Remove the bacon from the hot oil and transfer to some kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. Let it cool down a bit before chopping into small pieces. Set aside. This will be used as a topping for the soup later on.
- Chop the onion and garlic cloves. Shred the cheddar cheese.
- In a large pot, add the butter, onions, garlic, pepper, the rest of the salt and thyme. Cook on medium heat until the onions are tender.
- Add 3/4 of the roasted cauliflower to the pot and mix to combine. The last 1/4 of roasted cauliflower will be used as a topping. Set it aside.Add the chicken bone broth to the pot. With an immersion blender, puree the cauliflower as much as you can. You should have a nice thick-ish soup.
- Add the heavy cream and blend again.
- Add the cheddar cheese a little bit at a time so that it can melt evenly and continue to stir. Add the chopped parsley.The soup is now ready to serve.
- In each bowl, add a generous portion of soup and top with some crispy bacon bits, some of the extra roasted cauliflower florets, any extra cheddar cheese you may have and some extra parsley.
Nutritional information is provided through calculations made on fatsecret.com. They are approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on mypcoskitchen.com. Sugar alcohols are included in the fiber count. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber (which include sugar alcohols).
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Misti Smith says
Super yummy!! I did head of cauliflower and one head of broccoli as what I had..
Question about how much is serving size?
Mira says
Hi Misti, the recipe card says 8 servings.
Kath R says
Beautiful recipe – my boyfriend said it was the best cauliflower soup he’s ever had. This will become a winter staple. Thank you!
Darlene Breedlove says
Can you PLEASE put measurements in U.S. as a side note?
Mira says
If you click US CUSTOMARY right above the ingredients, it converts the recipe into US cups. You just have to click it to see US measurements.
Tom says
Mira,
Thanks for your site and great recipes.
With this recipe, you are missing are missing an easy way to cook bacon…in the OVEN, on a foiled-lined baking sheet! Much less mess and it takes about the same time as the cauliflower, so can be cooked at the same time!
Mira says
Hi Tom, thanks for the tip. I used to cook bacon this way, but we don’t have bacon in Japan anyways so I just pan fry everything as they only have ham.