Slow Cooker Cheesy Cauliflower Soup

This easy Crockpot Cauliflower Soup is the perfect cold-weather healthy comfort food. It's a lightened-up, healthy version of baked potato soup made with cauliflower, veggies, low-fat dairy, and cheddar cheese.

This cauliflower soup is ideal for cozy dinners, packed lunches, or even as a make-ahead meal. Like most soups, it only gets better after a night in the fridge. Plus it's easy to adapt to any diet - you can easily make it work for low-carb/keto, gluten-free, paleo, vegetarian, and more. 

The other thing I love about this slow cooker cauliflower soup is that it is incredibly easy to make. Toss everything in the slow cooker and blend. That's it! 

Why We Love Crockpot Cauliflower Soup

Here are three reasons you will want to make this soup.

• Healthier option: If you love baked potato soup or potato cheese soup, this is a healthier and lighter version that is still creamy, cheesy, and delicious.
• Easy to make: If you buy packaged cauliflower florets, this soup couldn't be easier to make! The slow cooker does the work and then you simply blend it,
• Add all the toppings: We love serving this cauliflower soup with tons of toppings - crispy bacon, chives, croutons, sour cream, fresh herbs, cheese, green onions, toasted pumpkin seeds, and more. 

Ingredients and Easy Swaps

Here's everything you need to make this delicious soup. 

• Cauliflower: The base of this soup is cauliflower florets. Use a whole fresh cauliflower cut into florets or buy packaged florets for a faster option. For a thicker texture, feel free to add 1-2 peeled and diced potatoes as well.
• Carrots, onion, celery, and garlic:  This adds so much flavor to the soup. Use any kind of onion you like and adjust the quantities for a stronger flavor if you prefer. If you like potato leek soup, consider adding leeks as well. 
• Milk: Evaporated milk is used in place of heavy cream in this recipe. It's a lighter way to make a creamy soup. If you prefer heavy cream, use that instead. Or swap in coconut milk.
• Broth: Vegetable broth or chicken broth works great in this soup.
• Cheese: We like this soup with sharp cheddar cheese, but feel free to use any strong cheese. It's delicious with goat cheese, feta cheese, gouda, Swiss, and pepper jack.

How to Make Cheesy Crockpot Cauliflower Soup

As easy as the Slow Cooker already is, would you believe this cauliflower soup couldn't get any easier? It's true!

When you've gathered all your ingredients and cut your veggies all you have to do is add the cauliflower, other veggies, garlic, and broth to your slow cooker. Cook all of this together on low for about 4 hours or until everything is nice and soft.

When the four hours are up, in another bowl, mix the flour, evaporated milk, and skim milk. Add this slurry to the slow cooker and cook this all together for another hour on high. The soup will get nice and thick this way.

When that last hour is up, add salt and pepper to taste and then use an immersion blender to blend the soup all up till it is nice and creamy.

If you don't have an immersion blender, you can blend the soup in batches in a blender, but be sure to do it slowly, and leave an opening in the top of the lid and cover it with a towel to avoid the steamy, hot soup from exploding out the top and burning you.

Add the cheese to the blended soup and stir until it's all melted and cheesy and gooey.

Recipe Ideas

• Gluten-free and low-carb: You can leave out the flour to make a gluten-free, Paleo, or low-carb version. It will still turn out good, it just won't be quite as thick. For keto and low carb, swap in heavy cream and whole milk.
• Chunky soup: You can also blend only about half the soup if you like a chunkier version.
• Add broccoli: Use half broccoli and half cauliflower for a cruciferous combo cheesy soup. (For a broccoli-only soup option, try this recipe.)
• Make it spicy: For a spicy version of this cauliflower soup, add two chipotles with adobo sauce to the soup before blending. Add more if you like it hot!
• Curry flavored: For an Indian-inspired flair, add curry powder to the mix before cooking and swap in coconut milk for the evaporated milk.
• Add more texture: If you like all the texture in your soups (like I sometimes do), you can steam a side of bite-size veggies in the microwave or on the stovetop and add it to the soup after blending. This way, you get both tender veggies and creamy veggies in your soup.
• Add herbs: If you love fresh herbs, consider adding fresh thyme, rosemary, or oregano.
• Roasted cauliflower soup: To bring out a richer, deeper, roasted taste to your soup, roast the cauliflower florets, carrots, onions, and garlic in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes before continuing with the directions as follows. Put them on a sheet pan and sprinkle with olive oil before roasting.

Can you freeze cauliflower soup?

I often like to make a double batch of my soups to freeze some for later. Or, I'll just freeze leftovers if we don't crush it all within a day or two. It's easy to do and you'll thank yourself later when you don't have anything for dinner and you remember you have stocked up your freezer for such an occasion.

After you have cooked and blended your soup, let whatever portion you want to freeze cool to room temperature. Once it's cooled off, put it into freezer-safe dishes such as plastic containers with screw-top lids, or even large mason jars. Ziploc bags work too, just make sure you put the open bag into a bowl or another container to hold it upright as you ladle soup into it, or it will fall over and make a huge mess.

When you're ready to reheat your soup, simply thaw it in the fridge all the way (again supporting those baggies with a bowl if necessary), put it into an oven- or microwave-safe container for reheating.

So if you're feeling the soup thing but it's not soup weather yet, then this Cheesy Cauliflower Soup will satisfy your soup needs without having to sweat over a hot stove all day.

How long will this keep in the fridge?

Cauliflower soup keeps well in the fridge for 4-5 days. Keep it in an airtight container. When you heat it up, add a touch of extra broth or milk if the soup is thicker. Sometimes the soup will thicken as it hits.

Can I make this as a chunky soup?

If you prefer a chunkier soup, you can leave some of the vegetables intact. What I would recommend is blending half the soup and leaving half chunky. That way you get a thick soup but also get some of the whole vegetables.

Another option is to roast some cauliflower on the side and add it to the soup right before serving. The deep nutty flavor of the roasted cauliflower is great as a topping. Plus it adds some texture.