A hearty winter warmer.
Daniel and I were heading out on a rare date night together. It meant I wasn’t home to cook a meal for the kids and Catherine (our current workawayer staying with us). Rather than have them all eat instant noodles for dinner, I decided to make this cauliflower chowder for them before Daniel and I headed out.
I’ve had to develop a bit of a love affair with cauliflower. Having five heads of cauliflower in the house at any one time is too much for most. For me, it was a challenge I accepted.
I’ve had cauliflower soup in cafes before. It’s full of flavour, warming and delicious. I wanted to do something a little more hearty than a pureed soup so settled on making this chowder. One thing I love about this cauliflower chowder recipe is that it uses milk rather than cream but without the soup losing its creamy consistency.
This verdict is that this soup was a winner with everyone. It was so delicious I had to have a small bowl of it before getting ready to go out. I even made a loaf of fresh bread for Catherine and the kids to enjoy. I find that with soup, the kids both love to dip their bread into it. Since some soups can be quite messy to serve to toddlers, I often break up a slice of bread into the soup and let it soak up the liquid making it easier for young ones to eat it without a massive mess. Since this soup had a thicker consistency, I gave them bread on the side so they can “dip dip”.
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Cauliflower Chowder
Ingredients
- 5 slices bacon, diced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon thyme, dried
- 2 teaspoons parsley flakes, dried
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup low-fat milk
- 1 Cauliflower, large - half roughly chopped, half riced in a food processor
- black pepper, freshly ground to taste
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium high heat.
- Add bacon, onion, garlic and butter. Saute until it just starts to caramelise and turn golden.
- Add into pot the roughly chopped cauliflower, the riced up cauliflower, thyme and parsley. Mix it all together.
- Add in the flour. Whisk this in until all mixed together with other ingredients in the pot and is lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in the milk and chicken stock, stirring constantly until slightly thickened.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 12-15 minutes.
- Before serving, mix in the parmesan cheese.
- If the chowder is too thick, add more milk as needed until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with a little more grated parmesan, bacon and/or parsley, if desired.
Notes
- Other variations would be to include finely diced carrot and finely chopped celery. Add these at the same time as the cauliflower.