Creamy Cauliflower Potato Soup

With herbed sourdough croutons and black lentils, this soup's creamy and flavorful, with layers of textures. I know I say this a lot but it's also a nutritional powerhouse. 🙂

It's plant-based, vegan, uses whole foods (ie. nothing good removed, or bad stuff added) and all around awesome. No need for a side of bread - croutons fill in for that. The 'meat' is the lentils. As for the protein content, there's protein in the cauliflower (5 grams in a small head of cauliflower), potatoes (3.5 grams for each small one), lentils especially (26 grams for just half a cup), and even tiny amounts in the garlic and chives. We're good.

Makes enough for about 4 bowls.

Soup Ingredients:

• 1/4 head of cauliflower, cleaned and cut into large chunks

• 4 small to medium yellow and/or red potatoes, cleaned with skins on, cut into large chunks

• 3 garlic cloves, sliced

• 6 cups broth, a vegan chicken broth, or water

• Handful of fresh chopped chives (or tarragon, parsley, cilantro)

• 1-2 tsp salt (if using water instead of broth, you'll need more salt to taste)

• Freshly cracked black pepper

Soup Directions:

1. In a medium soup pot over medium high heat, sauté garlic for a couple of minutes (optional: add 1 tbsp oil or keep it healthier and add 1 tbsp of water at a time to ensure garlic does not burn)

2. Add cauliflower and potato, then broth and bring to a boil. Make sure cauliflower and potatoes are covered with broth/water so they cook. Cover and simmer for 15-20 mins

3. Using an immersion blender, blend to your desired consistency (we like it with a bit of texture and not ultra smooth)

4. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. All salt is different which is why you must taste your food, adding a bit of salt at a time. Remember, you can always add more but you can't remove it

Herbed Sourdough Croutons Ingredients & Directions:

• 2 slices of sourdough bread

• 1 tbsp safflower oil (or other oil with a high burning point to avoid carcinogens)

• 1 tsp dried thyme (you can also use fresh thyme, or dried/fresh rosemary)

• 1 tsp onion powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp paprika

Cut bread into cubes and toss all ingredients on a baking sheet. Spread croutons out and bake in a 300F toaster oven (or your regular oven) for 20 minutes. Keep it in a bit longer if you like your croutons extra crispy.

Step by Step

Gather your ingredients, wash and cut them into large chunks. Since it'll be blended, this doesn't need to be pretty.

Follow steps 1 and 2 from "Soup Directions" above.

Preheat toaster oven or regular oven to 300F (for croutons).

Meanwhile, cook black lentils (or any lentils). Lentils take about 15 minutes to cook in a 1:3 lentil to water ratio.

1. Wash lentils (and remove any pieces that may be pebbles. I've never found any in my experience but the directions always say to remove any "debris" or small rocks. Maybe I've just been eating them 🤷🏻‍♀️

2. Pop lentils into a small pot and add water (if you're making 1/2 cup of dried lentils, add 1.5 cups of water)

3. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes

While the soup and lentils are cooking, it's time to make croutons.

Follow directions above for these homemade beauties.

Check to make sure cauliflower and potatoes are cooked by poking them with a knife. They should be so soft your knife should slide right in and out. Immersion blend the soup, or pop it into a blender - you may have to blend half the soup at a time to make sure it doesn't overflow and create a colossal mess.

Once done, ladle soup into a bowl...

Why do I keep the skins on? Because almost everything I've learned about plants (with skins) is that normally, that's where the nutrition's concentrated. Get that into you.

Add your delicious croutons 🤤

You can always stop here. But why.

Add lentils (one of the most nutrition-packed foods and very helpful for a healthy gut).

Top with a healthy dose of fresh herbs, and... voila!

Bon appetit!