Katie Lee Biegel's 5-Ingredient Creamy Cauliflower Soup Is Exactly How We Want to Celebrate Spring
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If you're anything like us, you've been hitting the produce section of your local grocery store, hunting down the best deals on seasonal spring produce. Those early warm days of spring bring tons of healthy veggies we love adding to our dinner routine—whether it's broccoli, asparagus, cabbage or, you guessed it, cauliflower.
We love cooking up something special with fresh cauliflower (or even the frozen variety), including a cozy casserole and crunchy chips. But when we're dealing with the warm days and cool nights that characterize that winter-to-spring transition, sometimes cauliflower soup is exactly what we need. We have a few soup recipes that hit the spot, but Food Network star Katie Lee Biegel just added yet another to our usual cauliflower soup rotation.
Related: Our Top 20 Dinners to Make This Spring
The best part of Biegel's super-simple recipe is that it has just five ingredients. Aside from pantry staples olive oil, salt and pepper, you'll just need garlic, cauliflower, raw cashews, low-sodium vegetable broth and some Parmesan cheese (if you want a vegetarian-friendly dish, be sure to look for vegetarian-specific Parm).
To copy Biegel, add olive oil and a minced clove of garlic to a Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook the garlic for less than a minute—you don't want it to burn—before adding in your cauliflower florets. (Biegel says she used half of a medium head of cauliflower, but you could easily scale this recipe up or down by changing up your cauliflower quantities.) Cook and stir for about 4 minutes, then add in 2 cups of your veggie broth, plus salt and pepper to taste. Bring the soup up to a simmer, cut the heat to low and cover your Dutch oven for about 10 minutes, or until the cauliflower is cooked through and tender.
Transfer the soup mixture to a blender with 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and puree until smooth. (Folks with an immersion blender can skip the transfer step and blend directly in the soup pot, if they like.) Serve up the soup with a touch of olive oil and your favorite soup accoutrement. Biegel opted for some Parmesan crisps, which you can make yourself using our simple method. You could also opt for savory toasted quinoa or an extra sprinkling of Parmesan cheese—which you can trade for nutritional yeast for a vegan option. Biegel even says you can opt out of the cashews if someone at your table has a nut allergy.
We also appreciate how this soup could go with just about anything—enjoy it solo if you like, but pairing a cup with a side salad (hello, Lemony Lentil Salad with Feta) or a springtime sandwich will make for a delish café-style lunch. Plus, you can feel good about making a pretty nutritious choice. Cruciferous veggies like cauliflower and broccoli are great sources of folate, vitamin A, vitamin C and manganese, and eating them regularly may confer some pretty impressive health benefits. Plus, the addition of garlic and olive oil adds a little anti-inflammatory kick to this recipe.
Related: 9 Inflammation-Fighting Foods You Probably Already Have in Your Kitchen
No matter how you dish up this creamy soup, it's an easy way to shake up your mealtime routine without breaking the bank—and maybe even without having to make another trip to the grocery store.
