Cauliflower Chowder
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A creamy, low carb, hearty and cozy soup, loaded with so many good-for-you veggies. Perfect for those chilly nights!
I have been making a lot of cozy soups to get us through these chilly nights. But instead of making my usual carb-loaded chowders that I love so much, I tried something a little bit lighter and a little more hearty. After all, Spring is officially here, sweater season is slowly coming to an end, and bikini season will be here before you know it.
Now I’ll be honest – I was very skeptical about using cauliflower in place of potatoes, but boy, was I in for a treat.
The cauliflower is an amazing low-carb substitute here, and it’s really such a perfect way to sneak in some veggies for those picky eaters. And to balance out all that veggie goodness, I just had to add some crisp bacon bits because at the end of the day, bacon just makes everything a thousand times better.
Either way, this is one cozy, hearty soup that the whole family will gobble up with zero complaints, promise!
Cauliflower Chowder
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 1 head cauliflower, roughly chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup 2% milk
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate, reserving 1 tablespoon excess fat in the stockpot.
- Melt butter in the stockpot. Add garlic, onion and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in cauliflower and bay leaf. Cook, stirring occasionally, until barely crisp-tender, about 4-5 minutes.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Stir in chicken broth and milk, and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 3-4 minutes.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until cauliflower are tender, about 12-15 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Puree with an immersion blender until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with bacon and parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Loved this receipe. First time made for company and they loved it also, I stuck to the plan. Second time used up some cauliflower and brocilli and added in some zuchinni, added some cheddar cheese on the top. Thanks for the seed.
Great Soup. Made it yesterday was very comforting on a breezy fall day. 🙂
If you are doing LCHF diet you can reduce carb count by using full-fat milk, ditch the carrots & flour and puree a portion to thicken it. Adding chicken is also a great option.
Made it tonight, you killed it, girl! Doubled the cook time for everything but whatevs, it was a huge hit. Thanks!
I can’t figure where the trans fat is coming from in this recipe, unless you’re using margarine instead of butter.
Would this work in the crock pot?
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide: http://www.thekitchn.com/5-tips-for-converting-recipes-to-the-slow-cooker-189343.
Does it freeze well?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Looking forward to trying this!! I have exactly 4 pieces of bacon left over from breakfast today and left over chicken broth I need to use up….it must be destiny! My husband hates cauliflower so hopefully he will like this….sending it in his lunch so guess he won’t have too much of a choice:-) He doesn’t always pay attention anyway so maybe if I don’t actually say it has cauliflower he will never know!
Chungah, I just made this soup tonight and it didn’t thicken. Do you have any thoughts as to why it didn’t? I didn’t understand what you meant by whisking the flour when you added it to the the veggie mixture. I did stir, but am not sure if that would have really affected it.
Marie, the flour needs to be stirred in thoroughly along with the chicken broth and milk. If this is not done properly, the soup will not thicken.
What an amazing looking soup! It couldn’t be much better with the added bacon too.
I made this last night! I added some sharp cheddar cheese as well as Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. It was fantastic! Warm and filling without the carb-loaded guilt trip.
Another great dish from damdelicious! I minused the bacon and added fresh corn kernels. Amazing
This is a DIVINE, WONDERFUL, & DELICIOUS Recipe! I left out the carrrots, not a fan of carrots. I used regular butter and milk due to budget constraints and it turned out just fine! Thanks Chungah!
Laurie
Why can not get your recipe to print? It wants to print all the replys with the recipe
Internet Explorer has recently made some updates that are causing print problems. I recommend using a different browser, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari. But if you can only use Internet Explore, you can highlight the recipe, left-click, and print from there. Easy peasy!
Tell your printer to print only the page you want.
Love this recipe. I made the soup today for lunch and everyone enjoyed it very much. Your time to help us in the kitchen is greatly appreciated!
I made this last night and my jaw hit the floor. I was hoping it would be yummy, but nothing prepared me for the love affair I was about to have with this soup! I want it again today! We only made half the recipe (in case it didn’t taste good, because thats happened before) Now I am upset that I didn’t make the whole amount!!! I added more salt and pepper so Im sure it wasn’t as healthy after that but boy was it delicious! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
My husband gave this two thumbs up, and he isn’t vegetarian in any sense of the word. I had only a small head of cauliflower, so should have adjusted the broth amount accordingly to achieve creamier chowder. Added ham to each bowl for more protein. Plan to add minced fresh jalapeno to the leftovers to give a little different flavor. Thanks for a new favorite recipe.
Thanks for giving the “print” option!
I made this soup tonight and LOVED it!!! Thank you for the recipe, it’s going into my favourite recipes book! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! Soup is one way my kids will eat vegetables, and this cauliflower chowder has a good variety of veggies. Plus, it tastes great, especially with the bacon 🙂
If you’d like to see my post about it, here it is: http://busymomrecipes.com/dinner/cauliflower-chowder/