Creamy Green Cauliflower Soup with Parsley Sauce
As you all know, I love my cruciferous vegetables.
These delicious vegetables have it all; carotenoids, beta-carotene, vitamins C, E and K, folate, minerals, fiber, and disease-fighting phytochemicals.
Members of the cruciferous family include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage and bok choy.
Studies have shown eating a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables is your best defense for preventing and chronic disease.
I personally recommend eating several servings per week in soups, steamed or roasted. This week I bought a couple of small heads of green cauliflower at the farmer's market, and created this creamy green cauliflower soup with parsley sauce. Easy and delectable.
Hope you enjoy this healthy, plant-based cauliflower soup recipe as much as I did. Wishing you a peaceful and compassionate day filled with cruciferous vegetables!
- 2 small heads of green cauliflower (or white)
- pinch of salt and ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil (or better yet olive oil you put in a spray bottle and lightly spray)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable broth (or more for sauteing)
- small leek, sliced (about 1 cup)
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup non-sweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoons dry mustard
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- sprinkle cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ cup parsley leaves (or basil or combine both)
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- ¼ cup vegetable broth (or olive oil)
- Pinch of salt & pepper
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F
- Chop the cauliflower into small florets. Measure out 2 cups of cauliflower and place into a bowl. Toss with olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Transfer to a baking sheet and spread the cauliflower in a single layer. Bake, stirring once or twice, until the cauliflower is light golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the vegetable broth in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leak and saute until softened and not brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add more vegetable broth if the leek is sticking to the saute pan.
- Add the remaining chopped cauliflower, the vegetable stock, dry mustard, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Add the almond milk and simmer for another 5-10 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork tender.
- Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly. Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and creamy, working in batches if necessary. Return the soup to the saucepan and reheat over medium-low heat. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, Top each with roasted cauliflower and drizzle with parsley sauce.
- Chop the herbs and place them in a food processor. Add half the vegetable broth or oil and blend on high until emulsified, adding more liquid as needed. Should be a little thick.
So many of your recipes that I’ve looked at lately use olive oil; I’m so disappointed!
If you follow the Websites and blogs of some of the giants of whole foods plant-based eating (such as Dr. McDougall, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr, Barnard, Rip Esselstyn, John Pierre, Dough Lisle, Jeff Novick, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Goldhamer, Dr. Popper, Chef AJ, Lindsay Nixon a.k.a The Happy Herbivore, et al.), you’d know that using/cooking with oil is not recommended – oil is a highly concentrated, highly processed, highly calorific, unhealthy “food”!
Hi Stu – Actually I disagree – I don’t completely omit oil in all recipes but I use very little oil in my recipes like this one which I recommend just spraying the cauliflower with pinch of oil or 1 teaspoon. I also recommended sautéing vegetables like the leeks in this recipe in vegetable broth instead of oil. You can always omit the oil in any recipe. Today I made a basil pine nut pesto with vegetable broth, no oil which I am posting this week. Dr Essselstyn and Dr Campbell are my plant-based gurus and I agree that the less oil you eat the better. You may like the no oil granola bars I posted this week. Thanks for taking the time to write Stu and thanks for being part of our community.
Don’t be disappointed about recipes with oil. Just ignore or replace with an equal amount of recipe suitable (compliant) liquid !
According to Stephen Fry on QI – the world’s oldest women’s secret to longevity was olives and olive oil…
Stu then replace with unprocessed unheated organic coconut oil 🙂
Have we all gone mad? Now what’s wrong with olive oil?!? Any food that has been used for thousands (yes, thousands) of years is NOT GOING TO KILL YOU!! Worry about something real!! Like climate change, the bees dying in unprecedented numbers because of these man-made poisons called neonictinoids. Worry about the arctic melting but not olive oil. Just, please, no.
well said
Totally agree. Good comment. Olive oil is great and has been used in Mediterranean diets for thousands of years.