Creamy Vegan Cauliflower Soup (Oil Free)

This warming creamy vegan cauliflower soup is a great starter or lunch. It’s light, oil-free, but creamy with a cheese flavor because of the nutritional yeast.

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It may not sound like something to impress anyone with: cauliflower soup. But I promise you this soup is VERY creamy and delicious. It makes a great starter or a nice addition to a lunch or dinner.

In general, during winter and fall I make more soups and stews, but this soup has been my favorite this year. Last year my favorite was this potato lentil stew. I highly recommend that one too!

This creamy vegan cauliflower soup is flavored with a veggie broth and nutritional yeast. As such, this soup is creamy (because of the cauliflower and cashews), but it doesn’t taste that much like cauliflower because of the veggie broth and nutritional yeast.

Since this soup is quite light (calorie-wise), I recommend serving it as a starter. For lunch or dinner, this recipe is delicious too with some brown rice, quinoa, more potatoes, or bread.

How to Make Creamy Vegan Cauliflower Soup

Use boiled (or roasted) cauliflower

When you blend the cauliflower raw it will not create the same creamy texture and it will not taste like cauliflower that much. So, add your cauliflower immediately to the soup so it has time to boil with the other ingredients.

Make it creamy

Blended cauliflower puree is quite creamy, but the addition of soaked cashews will create that extra creamy taste and texture. All you have to do is soak the cashews in hot water and drain. Add the drained cashews to the soup and blend to create a creamy soup.

Add flavor

Cauliflower as such doesn’t have a ton of flavor so use a good quality vegetable broth. But also, the garlic and miso are a must in this recipe. I love to add miso (while the soup is blending) to create a deep umami flavor.

Tip: for extra flavor use roasted cauliflower.

Create a smooth soup

To create a creamy texture, I love to use a high-speed blender. An immersion blender will also create a delicious soup, but somehow in a blender I get that super creamy texture. If you don’t have a high-speed blender don’t feel discouraged. You can still make this creamy cauliflower soup. Just make sure the cashews are soaked long enough and the cauliflower is soft enough to blend. I once broke an inexpensive blender making a cauliflower soup, so please make sure your cauliflower is super soft when you don’t have a high-speed blender. I like to use this high speed Vitamix blender or this high-speed KitchenAid blender.

close up raw cauliflower with green leaves in the backdrop

Vegan Cauliflower Soup With Cashews

Using soaked cashews is a super easy and delicious way to add texture and creaminess to a soup. It’s also a healthy fat and keeps the soup oil-free if you wish.

Cashews are already a pretty soft nut, so you will only need to soak them in hot water for about 20 minutes or 1-2 hours if you are using a less powerful blender. The soaking will make the cashews much easier to blend without losing any flavor.

raw cauliflower in florets on a wooden cutting board with green cauliflower leaves around it

Vegan Cauliflower Soup With Nutritional Yeast

Nutritional yeast is a well-known product (especially among vegans). It’s a nutritious product and I love to add it for extra flavor. In this recipe with this amount of nutritional yeast it creates a light cheese like flavor.

Why you will love this creamy cauliflower soup:

With a few basic ingredients this soup is ready in less than 30 minutes. And all you need is a head of cauliflower and a few other basic ingredients.

This soup is creamy, yet light and oil free. And the flavors in this soup are very versatile and combine well (as a starter) with any other fall or winter dish such as this pasta recipe.

I love that this soup warms me up like any other heavy winter soup.

This soup ticks all the boxes for a few specific diets. It’s vegan, oil-free, but also gluten free.

simmering creamy vegan cauliflower soup ingredients in a large pot on a grey backdrop with small bowls around pot

A few tips

  • This soup is oil free and low fat, but feel free to add olive oil (see recipe notes below)
  • If you like a little more texture in your soup, don’t blend the enter batch. Add about ¾ of the soup to the blender and leave the rest of the soup with the chunky parts in the pan. Then combine with the blended soup and serve.
  • For an extra creamy flavor blend less of the liquid and save the leftover liquid as a broth for other recipes.
  • You can skip the nutritional yeast, but I would not recommend it. I think it gives lots of flavor.  

Craving more cauliflower? Here are a few delicious cauliflower recipes:

I’d love to know what you think of this cauliflower soup. Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! And if you snapped a photo of your soup, share it with me on Instagram so I can post it in my stories!

three light brown bowls of creamy vegan cauliflower soup topped with thyme on a grey backdrop with a wooden cutting board in the background together with fresh thyme on a small blue plate and a linen light brown napkinEASY Creamy Vegan Cauliflower Soup oilfree ingredients plantbased glutenfree cheeseflavor soup thegreencreator pinterest

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three bowls of creamy cauliflower soup on a grey backdrop in a light bowl decorated with thyme

Creamy vegan cauliflower soup (oil free)

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  • Author: Bianca
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 3-4 servings  (as a starter) 1x
  • Category: starter
  • Method: stovetop
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

This warming creamy vegan cauliflower soup is a great starter or lunch. It’s light, oil-free, but creamy with a cheese flavor because of the nutritional yeast.


Ingredients

Scale
  • ½ cup (75 gr) unsalted and unsalted cashew nuts + 150 ml of boiling water
  • 1 medium cauliflower
  • 1 large potato, peeled and diced
  • 34 garlic cloves, minced
  • 33.8 oz (1 liter) of water
  • 2 cubes of vegetable broth or 3 tsp if you use a powdered bouillon
  • 2 tsp miso (of your choice)
  • 3 tsp (15 gr) nutritional yeast
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp water or olive oil

Instructions

To a small bowl add the cashews and hot water and set aside to soak for about 20 minutes.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil or water and add the minced garlic to the pan. Stir and make sure to not burn the garlic, only heat it up.

Wash the cauliflower and cut into florets.

Add 33.8 oz /1 liter of water to the pan with the bouillon (cubes or powder). Start with just a little water to dissolve the bouillon, then add more while stirring the garlic and until the bouillon cube is dissolved. Then add the rest of the water.

Add the cauliflower florets and potato cubes.

Let this simmer gently over medium heat.

When the cashews have soaked in the water, drain and add the soaked cashews to the pan.

Add the nutritional yeast to the pan too. Simmer until the potato cubes are soft. This takes about 10 minutes, but the longer it simmers, the better.

When the soup is almost done add it to the blender along with the miso.

Blend on medium high until the soup is soft and creamy.

Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm.


Notes

You can also make this ahead. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and heat on the stove to serve. You can also freeze the soup in an airtight container.

Tip: are you not so fond of the creamy soups, but do you like this recipe? Slice your cauliflower florets and potato cubes a bit finer and only blend 3/4 of the soup. Then add the pureed soup back to the pan. This way you have a creamy, but not completely smooth soup with some texture.

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