Vegan Cheesy Cauliflower Cashew Soup
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How to Make the Best Vegan Cauliflower Soup:
- Sautee – start by sautéing all your veggies in a splash of veggie broth or water, build a lot of deep flavor with aromatics and herbs. Onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay and thyme are my favorite flavor base but you can get creative here and use leeks, parsley root and oregano instead. Listen to your taste buds friends, recipes are but a guide!
- Puree – transfer everything to the Vitamix bowl (or another powerful blender) and blend it into the creamiest most luscious and comforting soup ever.
- Brighten it up – balance the flavors with a good squeeze of lemon juice and fresh herbs!
Potatoes and cashews replace the flour and unhealthy fats in this recipe resulting in a super luscious and creamy texture. The nutritional yeast adds that tasty cheesy goodness to the soup, so you won’t be sacrificing any flavor in this healthy plant-based version.
If you feel like cranking up the oven by all means roast the cauliflower florets first with a pinch of salt, pepper and garlic powder. It really isn’t necessary unless you really want to of course!
You’ll love this Vegan Cream of Cauliflower Soup:
+ Freezes Well.
How do you thicken cauliflower cashew soup without flour ?
Potatoes and cashews are purely magical thickeners! There’s really no need to add anything else to thicken the soup: no starch, no flour, no roux, no slurry needed. Just cashews!
Storing and Freezing:
- Transfer the soup to lidded glass containers and refrigerate up to 4 days.
- After cooling off completely you can freeze the soup in freezer safe glass containers up to 3 months. Remember to thaw out before reheating again.
Healthy Soup Toppings:
More Blended Soups to Try:
Since finally getting my Vitamix I have become obsessed with the creaminess of blender soups and stews. Here are a few more I think you’ll love: summery tomato gazpacho, roasted butternut squash soup, carrot ginger, spiced chickpea stew, potato leek, broccoli potato soup, sweet potato kale, yellow split pea and lemon lentil soup.
Vegan Cheesy Cauliflower Cashew Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflower -cut into florets
- 1 carrot -diced
- 1 small yellow onion -diced
- 1 rib celery -chopped
- 3 cloves garlic -minced
- 3 medium golden potatoes -cut into 1 inch cubes
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 6-8 cups vegetable stock (loe sodium)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 leaf bay
- 1.5 tsp turmeric
- 1.5 tsp ground ginger (or 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger root)
- sea salt + black pepper to taste
- 1 lemon cut into wedges for serving OPTIONAL
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium heat add a splash of veggie stock or water, the onion and a pinch of sea salt. Saute for a few minutes until translucent.
- Stir in the carrot and celery and add more water if needed. Continue cooking about 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the garlic, cauliflower, potatoes, cashews, thyme and bay leaf and toss everything to coat.
- Pour in the veggie stock and bring to a simmer. Stir in the nutritional yeast, turmeric and ginger and cook about 15 to 20 minutes until all vegetables are soft. Discard bay and thyme sprigs.
- Transfer to a powerful blender and puree until silky smooth (work in batches). Adjust seasonings to taste with more sea salt and serve garnished with the chives and the lemon wedges.
Notes
- You can omit the cashews if you prefer and add 1-2 cups of cashew milk instead, reduce the veggie stock by the same amount. It’s way silkier and creamier with the cashews tough.
- Make sure to use a powerful blender like the Vitamix when pureeing the soup or it might end up grainy instead of silky.
Nutrition
This is absolutely THE BEST cauliflower soup I’ve ever eaten!!!! I chose to roast my cauliflower in the oven before using it in the soup. This soup is so creamy and has so much depth of flavor…I can’t fit enough of it into my belly!
You have totally made my day! Thanks for reporting back Kimberly ~ Florentina Xo’
I notice that there are cashews in quite a few of your recipes. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to cashews. Is there another nut replacement I can use. I LOVE your recipes, but the cashews prevent me from making them. Thanks so much for your wonderful vegan meals…
So sorry to hear that Tina. In recipes like this soup you can replace them with more potatoes or cooked white beans, even soaked sunflower seeds or tofu if you are ok with those. It takes a little experimentation to find the perfect substitutes for your taste buds.Let me know how it goes 🙂
I used Tahini in mine, and I was very good!
Hello Florentina, I just found your blog. I made this as written but without any salt, since we are sos free. We loved it so much I’m making it again for the second week in a row.
You have no idea how happy that makes me. Hope you’ll find more recipes to love here ~ Florentina Xo’s
Sorry forgot the rating.
Hi there,
You add the garnish and it makes the soup look so amazing and appetizing. What is everything you have added on top?
Thanks Debbie
Thank you Debbie! I added fresh onion chives, red pepper flakes, black sesame seeds and a few hemp seeds. Hope you love it as much as I do ~ Florentina Xo’s
I made this tonight. I used leeks instead of the onion and cannelini beans instead of potatoes and OMG was it delicious! This will go into the rotation for sure. Thanks for sharing!
I am so glad I found this recipe. I just made it, and it was so creamy, filling and delicious with all kinds of good anti inflammatory things in ti. ! I think the comment about the red pepper flakes was a good idea. My husband added some red hot sauce, which gave it a bit more umph! Thank you Florentina!
I forgot the rating so I’ve added it. 5/5
Omg delicious! I didn’t have leeks so I gave it a miss and used water instead of stock. Also, don’t like thyme so omitted it. It was so yummy and silky and amazing. I ate the whole pot myself. I hope it freezes well!
Delicious! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
This soup is amazing!! I let everything simmer on low in the crockpot all day before blending. The house smelled like “Thanksgiving,” my daughter said. I did omit the potatoes (diet), however, it is still unbelievably creamy.
Delicious!!
Do I need to soak the cashews?
No need to soak since you are boiling the cashews in the soup they will be very soft even before blending.
I enjoyed his very much! It is very creamy.. I chose to omit the ginger, but I added some chilli flakes for a bit of zing! Also, I didn’t have any cashews, so I used some Tahini instead.. I will make this again!