Roasted Cauliflower and White Cheddar Soup
This roasted cauliflower and white cheddar soup is a delicious, lightened up creamy soup that is full of flavor.
This soup, oh, this soup.
It’s roasted cauliflower and fragrant garlic, savory thyme and sharp white cheddar. Basically, it’s amazing.
And if you top it with croutons made from these out-of-this-world pretzel rolls, you’ll probably roll over and die from pure happiness (no time for homemade pretzel rolls? no worries, you can skip the croutons altogether or use store bought).
The creaminess comes from a bit of lowfat milk and pureeing half the soup.
Can I get a huge yippee for a creamy soup without heavy cream? Now, I’m not saying this soup is calorie-free (hello, white cheddar cheese), but it is a delicious, lightened up creamy soup that is probably in my top 5 favorite soups of all time.
Roasting the cauliflower and garlic brings out entire levels of flavor heretofore unknown and the subtle hints of thyme and rosemary compliment the cauli-cheese combo magnificently.
With all the decadence of holiday baking staring us in the face right now, this roasted cauliflower soup is the perfect weeknight meal to refresh your taste buds and work up an appetite for more cookies.
What to Serve With This
- This simple shredded chicken can be added if meat is desired
- Store bought dinner rolls (or these homemade Soft Pretzel Rolls)
- Fresh fruit with this Honey Yogurt Dip
One Year Ago: Toffee Crunch Cupcakes
Two Years Ago: Hot Pizza Dip Bites
Three Years Ago: Sinfully Sinless Tiramisu
Roasted Cauliflower and White Cheddar Soup
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 4 whole cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup diced yellow or white onion
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme, or 2 teaspoons fresh, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary, or 2 teaspoon fresh, finely chopped
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- ½ cup milk
- 6 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 1/2 cups)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh parsley for garnish
- Croutons for topping, optional
Instructions
- Wash and trim the cauliflower into bite-size pieces. Toss with the cloves of garlic and one tablespoon of the oil. Scrape the mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes until the cauliflower is crisp-tender and golden in spots (it will cook a bit longer in a later step).
- Remove the garlic cloves, let them cool slightly, and finely chop.
- In a 4- or 5-quart saucepan, heat the remaining one tablespoon olive oil and add the onion, cooking until the onion is translucent, 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add the chopped garlic, thyme and rosemary. Cook for another minute.
- Stir in the cauliflower and broth; bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
- Carefully ladle about half the soup (in batches, if needed) in a blender and puree until smooth. Stir the pureed soup back into the pot – be careful as hot soup in a blender can be a recipe for disaster if the blender is overfilled. Add the milk and the cheese,
- Stir and cook on low heat until the cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with fresh parsley and croutons, if using.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
We love the flavor of this soup but have such a big issue with the cheese. We have tried many different brands of sharp white cheddar cheese and no matter what we do, it doesn’t melt into the soup. It just clumps up. We freshly grate it too. What are we doing wrong???? I want it to work out!
Hi Ariana, have you tried Tillamook brand? That’s the one I use most. Sharp white cheddar doesn’t melt as smoothly as a softer cheese, like Monterey Jack, but I’m sorry you are having clumping issues. You could try using medium cheddar – that might help!
I did try that brand and it still was iffy but maybe we’ll try again! And the do medium if that doesn’t work
Hi Ariana,
I too often have this problem. After much trial and error I have found that if the soup is too hot the cheese won’t melt smoothly. Make sure it’s only at a low simmer, and take the pot off the heat before adding in the cheese–a handful at a time–stirring until it’s smooth before proceeding. HTH. 🙂
This was the first of your recipes that I made several years ago and have been a fan ever since! I make a batch (sometimes double) and we devour it on our girls trip to the mountains/lake every year when we go in February. My daughter and I refer to it as “stick your face in it” soup, it’s so yummy we both could do just that! I just finished making another batch, girls trip starts tomorrow! One small addition – I add just a dash of ground nutmeg, it adds a nice sweetness to creamy dishes. Thank you again for sharing your amazing recipes! Love them all!
Thank you so much, Caroline! So happy you found your way here. And your new name for this soup made me laugh. 🙂
This was a fantastic soup. The small amount of rosemary really adds a nice, subtle flavor. We really enjoyed this soup and it came together easily. I used the immersion blender and blended to our preferred texture. I might reduce the cheese a bit next time and add a touch more milk. Honestly, it tasted amazing before adding milk or cheese! We will be making this one again – a great find – Mel does it again!!!
Great soup! Tonight was (another) Mel win! I made the cauliflower soup & paired it with Mel’s no knead peasant bread & followed with your chocolate chip pumpkin bread. All were amazing. I make your bread every week (or whenever we run out), but it was a first for this soup. (I will leave a separate post for the pumpkin chocolate chip bread, which was fabulous).
The only thing I did different with this soup was use my immersion blender. It’s a handy little device that I always think I should use more. It worked very well & I had a velvety wonderful soup. Thank you for another home run meal, Mel! I love your posts & Instagram & I want to thank you for all you do.♥️
Love this soup. I grew a lot of cauliflower this year and this is what I’m doing with it.
I love this recipe, thanks for inspiring me. I like to deglaze with a little white wine but other than that, it’s lovely
After trying Cafe Zupas Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup I went to pinterest to find a copycat recipe. This is not a copycat recipe, but the oven roasted cauliflower got my attention and I decided to give it a try. I was not Disappointed! The first time I made it I accidentally left the pot on the burner and over heated the cheese so it had a slight grainy texture, but the flavor was good so I knew I wanted to try it again. My second attempt went much better. I decided to make this recipe for St. Patrick’s Day and added spinach to the portion I put in the blender to turn it green. It tasted great and looked super festive.
You saved me, Mel! We had a bunch of family staying with us and needed a quick, satisfying meal that adults and kids would eat. Everyone LOVED it!! I doubled the recipe and every bite was polished off! Got a lot of compliments. So much flavor!!! We will make this one again and again!
I just made this tonight and it was delicious! I doubled the recipe and added some baked ham to it. I will definitely be making this again!! Thank you for a great recipe that is also healthy :).
Just made this for lunch. It’s good, and filling:) I added some Parmesan and a sprinkle of yellow cheddar on top of the white cheddar, for extra measure:) I blended the entire soup, but not finely, so it still has texture, but isn’t chunky (looks more like rice). I think I’m going to cook up some bacon for a little something on top:) I really LoVE Mel’s site, and every recipe has been awesome. This was okay, but I was expecting that since I don’t totally love cauliflower. I wanted another soup to my regulars, that was healthy and savory, and it delivered. It was also very quick, so I’ll probably make this again;)
Have you made this in the instant pot?
I haven’t (yet!)
Made this tonight and it was amazing. I did substitute the milk for almond milk.
It didn’t make a lot, so next time I will double it.
I’ve made this soup several times and we are having it for dinner tonight. We LOVE it! My granddaughter is a vegetarian and she loves it. Thanks, Mel
This soup is amazing. I added mushrooms and chicken, and I am in love.
Loved it! I had to add more broth as my cauliflower was huge. I pureed the whole soup but I kept some roasted cauliflower and chopped it to use as a garnish along with additional chopped fresh thyme.
Making this soup again tonight! We have to count carbs at our house, and this fills the need for a creamy, nutritious soup!
sounds delicious, think I’ll make it for dinner tonight.
This is a go to favorite quick easy and very versatile I have made it with romanesco as well as cauliflower yellow cheese white cheese even jack cheese whoever I have on hand always flavorful it freezes very well great for a quick lunch or soup and sandwich dinner even people who don’t like cauliflower like this soup! I purée half and leave half chunky so there is some texture. I also use cream ( I know bad for you but oh so good)
Thanks of the great recipe
I LOVE your website Mel and it is often my go-to for a recipe so I hate to leave a bad review but…. I made this soup following the recipe exactly and my whole family grimaced when they took a bite. They are pretty healthy eaters and like cauliflower. Maybe it was the combination of rosemary and/or thyme with the cauliflower but something didn’t work. Only the 2nd recipe of yours that I haven’t liked!
I know zero sbout cheeses. Could I use Swiss instead? I googled it but couldn’t find anything. I have some in the fridge sadly alone and needing to be used
Good question, Heather – I haven’t tried it myself, but I use Swiss in a broccoli cheese soup that I love (with a healthy amount of cheddar). Do you have another good-melting cheese you could use also (like Monterey Jack or yellow cheddar)?
I’ve made this soup a few times now, and it’s so very good. I think that because the ingredients are simple and few, fresh herbs are a must. Tonight I was short on rosemary by a teaspoon, so I substituted some finely chopped sage for the rest. It was awesome! Very hearty and earthy, and oh so satisfying. Thanks for all you do, Mel… this website is my go-to place for no fail recipes that my family always love!
Could I use frozen cauliflower in this, and would you thaw first and then roast? I have lots of frozen in my freezer from last summer’s garden.
Sure, I think frozen cauliflower could work just fine. I’d probably just roast it up from frozen – there might be a bit of extra liquid and you might need to add a few minutes but it should work fine.
A follow up question to using frozen cauliflower. How much would you use to equal a fresh head?
I would probably use about 8-10 cups.
I have never made cauliflower soup before but this sounded good. I used garlic white cheddar I recently bought from a visit to Amish country and topped it with texas toast croutons and bacon. It was Ahhhh…..Some! Thank you for sharing with us! Can’t wait to make for company! Your recipes are calling me back to try another! Have a warm soup day!
I’ve made this recipe a couple times now, and I think it might be my new favourite soup. SO nice and creamy, and reasonably healthy to boot! I’m not even a big fan of rosemary and thyme but the relatively small amounts work perfectly in this soup. I LOVE IT. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!!
Has anyone made this using vegetable stock?
i made it with vegetable stock and turned out jus as yummy!
Just finished making this & can’t wait for dinner! It took me so little time, dinner is ready a half hr early lol! Need to wait for hubby to get home.
I used one of the tips above & roasted the diced onion w the cauli. Then just sauteed the spices w the evoo before adding the cauli & broth. I didn’t bother to cook the cauli any more after roasting as for me it was already perfectly tender. For me, the roasted garlic really makes it! I am serving this w your brazilian cheese puffs, a family fave 🙂 Thank you for a super easy, fast & healthy dinner Mel!