This creamy and healthy cauliflower and white bean soup is hearty enough for a midweek meal. Super tasty topped with crumbled bacon or pancetta, skip the meat for an easy vegetarian soup. With vegan and dairy free modifications.
Vegetarian | Vegan Modifications | Dairy Free Modifications
*This post contains compensated links. Find more info in my DISCLAIMER. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tools to use for this soup recipe:
Why Cook Cauliflower And White Beans Together
Two of the whitest ingredients don’t result in fabulous food photos for a recipe blog, but they taste good together, and that’s what’s important. I’ve always recognized our food photos aren’t to the standard of other recipe blogs. But, we spend more time making the food, eating the food, and ensuring our readers can replicate the process!
Cauliflower soup is probably not as popular as broccoli soup, but we’ve been on a real cauliflower kick recently. Adding white beans, or cannellini beans to a soup is a no-brainer for us. White beans can stretch ingredients, add protein, and makes a soup more filling.
Check out some of our other white bean soup recipes:
Healthier Broccoli Cheddar Soup With White Beans
Creamy Dairy-Free Kale And White Bean Soup
Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup With White Beans
Ingredients For A Creamy Cauliflower Soup
There aren’t a ton of complicated ingredients for a cauliflower and white bean soup. The cauliflower should be cut into florets, but because you will be blending the soup, the pieces don’t have to be super small.
The canned white beans should be drained and rinsed. Because they are already cooked, they don’t take a long time to heat up in the soup.
Other Soup Ingredients
Like most of our soup recipes, the base of the soup includes olive oil garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery. You can substitute a half of a small yellow onion for the shallots if you have onions lying around the house.
The celery and carrots should be diced small. The smaller the carrots are cut the quicker it will be to cook them until they soften.
The soup is seasoned simply with ground cumin (one of my favorite soup ingredients) along with salt and black pepper – that’s it. It’s really just the vegetables that take center stage.
The last ingredient helps to make the soup creamy, it’s a decent-sized chunk of parmesan cheese. Not only does the cheese add to the creaminess of the cauliflower soup, but the sharpness of the cheese adds a depth of the flavor to the soup. If you are dairy-free, just skip it.
How To Make This Cauliflower And White Bean Soup Recipe
Add the olive oil to a large saucepan or dutch oven placed on medium-high heat. Add the garlic and shallots (or onions) and cook for about 3-5 minutes or until they start to soften. You don’t want to cook it so long that the garlic turns brown.
Add the celery, carrots, and salt and stir to blend. Cook for 7-10 minutes stirring occasionally. You want the carrots to start to soften if possible. It will take a bit longer for the carrots to cook than the cauliflower.
Add the cauliflower, cumin, black pepper, and vegetable broth. Place the parmesan chunk in and push the cheese down so that it is covered by the liquid.
Bring the soup to a boil, cover the pot, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 20-25 minutes or until the carrots and cauliflower are soft.
Finishing The White Bean And Cauliflower Soup
Remove a large ladle full of whole cauliflower pieces and put it to the side. This optional. You can blend all of the soup, but I like adding back a few pieces of cauliflower to give some texture to the soup.
Add the white beans to the pot and stir through.
Remove the dutch oven from the heat. Blend the soup with an immersion blender or a regular blender until most of the vegetables and beans are pureed. Be sure to place the head of the immersion blender below the soup to avoid a big mess.
Add the whole pieces of cauliflower back into the pot. Return to the stovetop and heat through. Top with coriander, parsley, or chopped bacon or pancetta.
Cauliflower And White Bean Soup
This creamy and healthy cauliflower and white bean soup is hearty enough for a midweek meal. Super tasty topped with crumbled bacon or pancetta, skip the meat for an easy vegetarian soup. With vegan modifications.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
- 2 shallots, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 2 inch chunk parmesan cheese (skip if vegan)
- 1 15 ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
- Fresh chopped parsley or cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a large saucepan or dutch oven placed on medium-high heat.
- Add the garlic and shallots and cook for 3-5 minutes or until they start to soften.
- Add the celery, carrots, and salt and stir to blend. Cook for 7-10 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent the vegetables from sticking or burning.
- Add the cauliflower, cumin, black pepper, and vegetable broth. Place the parmesan chunk in and cover with the liquid.
- Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until the carrots and cauliflower are soft.
- Remove a large ladle full of whole cauliflower pieces and put to the side.
- Add the white beans.
- Remove the dutch oven from the heat. Blend the soup with an immersion blender or a regular blender until most of the vegetables and beans are pureed.
- Add the whole pieces of cauliflower back into the pot. Return to the stovetop and heat through before serving.
- Top with cilantro, parsley, or chopped bacon or pancetta.
Notes
If you have never used an immersion blender for soup see the notes above.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 306Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 1mgSodium 1179mgCarbohydrates 45gFiber 14gSugar 8gProtein 16g
This nutritional data is provided by a third-party source and should not be relied on if you are on a strict diet.
Vegan And Dairy-Free Modifications
The easiest way to make this vegan and dairy-free is to simply skip the parmesan cheese. We are not vegan, so I like to add the cheese to give the soup a bit more flavor. In the end, though, just skip it! With the addition of the white beans, the soup will be pretty creamy without it.
