As the starter to our Christmas Eve dinner, I made a cauliflower soup garnished with crispy garlic chips and a drizzle of white truffle oil. This soup is very simple, light, and flavorful — and contains no dairy! It’s an elegant, delicious soup to serve at a dinner party.
For the dinner, I doubled the recipe, as I wanted to make sure we had plenty of soup for seconds. Turned out it was more than enough, despite everyone having seconds. But the soup also keeps pretty well and is great the next day — and who doesn’t love leftovers over the holidays?!
CAULIFLOWER SOUP (serves about 8 as a starter, 4 as a main course)
**Please note that I doubled the recipe for the Christmas Eve party, and so the photos show more amount of ingredients than listed.
- One head of cauliflower
- 2 large white onions, chopped
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- Water (enough to cover the cauliflower)
For Crispy Garlic
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced length-ways
- Olive oil for pan-frying
The soup itself is very simple. First, break down the cauliflower into small pieces.
Also, chop the onions and garlic.
Heat olive olive (about 1 tablespoon) in a large pot on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic. Turn down the heat to medium. Salt generously, and saute the onions and garlic, make sure to keep stirring to make sure that they don’t burn at all (**important to make sure the soup retains a nice, creamy white cauliflower color).
When the onions are tender, add the chopped cauliflower. Stir, then add water until cauliflower is just covered.
Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and cover. Cook until the cauliflower is extremely tender (easily breaking if you stick a fork through it), about 25 minutes.
Take off the heat. With an immersion blender, puree the cauliflower until smooth and silky. Taste, and adjust the salt as needed.
For the garlic chips:
Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan. When hot, turn down the heat to medium-high and fry the sliced garlic, turning frequently with a heat resistant spatula (or whatever with which you feel comfortable).
When golden, take the garlic chips out and lay them out on a paper towel over a plate. Sprinkle with some sea salt.
To serve: drizzle some white truffle oil over the soup, and garnish with the crispy garlic chips.
eat. live. paleo. 
This looks awesome! I want to run out right now for a head of cauliflower! The only addendum I’d be tempted to make is a little ground white pepper.
Thanks! White pepper is a good idea – I’ve tried it with fresh ground black pepper and it was too overpowering.
This came out fantastic! I only used one onion though since they were very large. Next time I may try sauteeing the onions in garlic in coconut oil. I had bought a $15 bottle of white truffle oil only on the basis of how good it smelled, and I needed a recipe to go with it! This worked out very well. Thanks!