I haven’t been able to visit IKEA®, where they offer amazing veggie balls, since the Covid lockdown. So I decided to create a clone in the true self-assemble spirit that makes it so well-known. Mine are superior. The original has kale and pea protein, which I find to be pricey and disgusting, respectively. To make it easy on the pocketbook and palate, I made a few adjustments before baking them. Some assembly is necessary. Serve the rice and your preferred sauce in bowls.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 55 mins |
| Additional Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 2 heads cauliflower, broken into florets
- olive oil cooking spray
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 6 cups water
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Soak cauliflower florets in a large bowl of lightly salted water for 20 minutes. Drain well, then pat dry.
- Set an oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven’s broiler. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
- Arrange cauliflower in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet; spray evenly with cooking spray.
- Broil in the preheated oven until browned, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in roasted cauliflower and garlic. Pour in water, season with salt and pepper, and simmer until all vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Purée soup with an immersion blender until smooth.
Reviews
Absolutely delicious! I followed recipe, did add “Real” bacon bits, that rounded out the overall flavor, I think. This past Tuesday was the first time – charred the florets half way,but made soup any way. Soup was delicious, even though color was more on the grey side. Hubby was out of town. Made it again tonight to share it with him. One of the changes changes I will make in the future is to ROAST florets (425 degrees) instead of putting them under the broiler. The florets started to burn tonight, like they did the first time, I had already lowered the rack in the oven to 8 inches, so lowered the rack another 2 inches; edges of florets continued to burn,so turned broiler off, set oven temperature to 425 to roast florets for 5 more minutes, tested doneness with a fork. Florets were done. Followed rest of recipe except for adding “Real” bacon bits. Did not measure, just scattered the bacon bits to cover top of soup in pot. Did this before blending ingredients. Soup was excellent. Hubby liked it; said he would enjoy it on a regular basis. P.S. He has a very selective palet, so this is a real plus for the kitchen staff ! lol
This was very well recieved. I liked it. Might have checked them in the broiler a bit earlier (some got charred), so I would cut the time when I make it again. I did add some bacon bits at the end. Mostly for my grandson. Didn’t really need anything else.
Soooo good! We tweaked it a bit by adding coconut milk and green curry paste and then shredding roasted chicken in last night, and had the vegetarian version for lunch today with a couple bison sliders at work. I cannot believe how great, how rich, how creamy this turned out. Absolutely will make this again. Even the fussy eater kids loved it!!!
I read other reviews and made slight adjustments; I tossed the cauliflower in a roasted vegetable rub with the olive oil before I roasted the cauliflower. After soaking the cauliflower for the required time it reduces the roasting time so watch out you don’t overcook/burn it. I also used Chicken Stock instead of water to one other persons comment about being bland; I only used 5 cups vs. 6 cups of liquid. I will make again 🙂
I thought this soup was really good! I used 4 cups of chicken broth and two cups of water. I also added heavy cream and Cajun spices! It’s really tasty and keto friendly.
Roasting the cauliflower adds more depth to the soup, which I love. I did think it was just a bit on the bland side so next time I’ll add some spices to it, not sure what goes best with cauliflower but I’ll do some research – I noticed that some of the reviews here said to add paprika and a carrot, I may try that. Definitely a keeper!
So good! Followed other reviewers suggestions by doubling the garlic, 1 med carrot cubed, 1 tsp paprika. Added cubed potatoes on top at the last 15 min of simmer. Removed the potatoes before using the immersion blender. Served w the potatoes as toppings. For me & hubby, I use only 1 cauliflower head & 4 cups broth. Still more than plenty for 2 servings each. Tried using bone broth & it works too.
I tried. I added cheese to finished recipe
To Tony that had the question about soaking the cauliflower in lightly salted water for 20 minutes – meant to clean the cauliflower only. He sure to DRY THOROUGHLY or you will be steaming and not roasting the cauliflower.
Loved it, browning the cauliflower made a big difference. I also added carrots.
I will make it again, but it is a little bland. I’ll spice it up next time.
I am making it for the second time today. Love, love, love! When serving I pass a small bowl of Parmesan cheese (cauliflower and cheese-yum). This is absolutely a go to soup. Thanks for sharing.
I love it, made it several times. It does come off as a bit bland so I will use broth next time, but a bit of salt did the trick for me. I added 2 potatoes that I threw in the instapot and added to the soup. Added some carbs but it’s so thick. Truly love this soup. Gonna try it with carrots next time as well.
My husband loved this soup! He looked forward to bringing the leftovers to work each day along with the sandwich he packed. I loved it also. I had read about others adding curry to make the recipe less bland; my husband is not a big fan of curry, so I added smoked paprika. Yum!
This soup was incredibly bland, even though I had used extra garlic. I livened it up with Rosemary, thyme, and grated cheese, and then made some garlic croutons to float on top. With those modifications it was much, much better.
Wayyyy too watery! I even added extra garlic,butter and a bit if milk. Then added cream of celery soup. It was still too watery. Recipe has added too much water. Disappointing
Just added hot prapika before roasting the cauliflower then everything as recipe, finished of when serving with double cream and handful of grated cheese to make it keto.
For not using broth I thought this was a great and simple food recipe!
I just made this, using my new Vitamix E310 blender for the first time, at setting 5 for 30 seconds. It came out ten times better than I imagined. Absolutely delicious!
roasted w/ jalapenos and garlic; added a bit of butter; subbed 4C veggie broth for 4C water; added bay leaves & thyme
This should be called cauliflower pudding