One of my favourite things about winter is soup. Without a doubt, I absolutely adored soup growing up and craved it more than anything, not just chicken noodle soup when I was sick either. So it was actually quite surprising when I thought about the fact that I haven't shared many soup recipes over here. And for that I must apologize and just know that I will do better going forward. I am starting to make up for this with my vegan cauliflower soup. I do think that this is a good starting point and we can move forward from here.

My Favourite Soup Growing Up

One of my all time favourite soups growing up was one called lemon soup. My grandma would make it for us kids all the time in the winter and we all loved it. It sounds weird, lemon soup, like what even is that? But it was the best thing of my life. I remember once when I was fairly young (probably around 11-12) I went over to my grandmas house to help her out because she was sick and I tried to make her lemon soup. Truthfully, I had no idea what I was doing and completely messed it up. You see, part of the soup requires adding an egg to it. But you have to be sure not to let the egg cook and scramble, well mine scrambled. She was so good about it though and still ate it. And for once, I cooked something for her and that made me feel better too. 

Learning to Make it My Own

After doing some digging, I found out what the soup was called and it's actually a Greek soup called avgolemono. The Greek side makes sense as my grandma is Italian and my grandfather was Albanian which is close to Greece. I already foresee myself making this classic soup recipe and sharing it soon because it's one of my faves. Yup, better than chicken noodle. We never had it with rice or chicken though, we just had it with noodles. 

All About the Cauli Life 

This vegan cauliflower soup is obviously big on one main ingredient- cauliflower. Cauliflower is definitely having its moment, from being the crust in pizza, gnocchi (thank you Trader Joe's) and even in smoothies. But cauliflower definitely deserves it. As part of the cruciferous vegetable family, it actually developed from cabbage and is thought to originate in ancient Asia. And because it is part of that family it also has some unique compounds that may help prevent cancer. These compounds appear to stop enzymes from activating cancer-causing agents in the body and they increase the activity of enzymes that disable and eliminate carcinogens (Michael Murray, "Healing Foods").

Purple Cauliflower:

For this vegan cauliflower soup, I used purple cauliflower because I wanted it to be visually appealing. Beyond just the visuals though, purple cauliflower also has some unique attributes. That lovely purple hue comes from the antioxidant called anthocyanin which is also found in red cabbage and red wine (!!).  Anthocyanins are a group of flavonoid compounds that fulfill important biological functions in protecting plants against various biotic and abiotic stresses. What is really interesting about anthocyanins is the impact it can have on your health due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant power. Due to their  ability to activate detoxifying enzymes, anthocyanins have also shown remarkable anti-cancer properties, including preventing cancer cell proliferation, inducing cancer-cell death, and inhibiting the formation of blood vessels that promote tumor growth.

How Roasting Makes This Soup THAT Much Better

You should be able to find purple cauliflower at the farmers market and even some well stocked grocery stores, but if you can't, just use regular cauliflower. It will still taste the same. For this vegan cauliflower soup, I also used two whole heads of garlic and no I haven't lost my mind. Because you are roasting this along with cauliflower and onion it becomes much more mellow in flavour. And because you are using this much onion and garlic, it also makes this soup great for when you are sick, or wanting to protect yourself from getting sick.

Garlic Power

Garlic has a long history of use as an infection fighter. It has been referred to as "Russian penicillin" to highlight its antibacterial properties. All of that antimicrobial activity is due to a compound called allicin. Allicin has been shown to be effective not only against common infections, such as colds, flu, stomach viruses and Candida but also against powerful pathogenic microbes including tuberculosis and botulism. Garlic has also been shown to be a powerful food to incorporate to protect you from cancer. Studies have shown that as few as two or more servings of garlic per week may help to protect against colon cancer. Allicin has been shown along with other substances in garlic to protect colon cells from the toxic effects of cancer-causing chemicals and also stop the growth of cancer cells once they develop. All of this info can be found in the book, "Healing Foods."

Vegan Cauliflower Soup

I hope that you can make and enjoy this vegan cauliflower soup. Once you have finished roasting everything, all you need to do is blend it up. I like using my Vitamix to get it really smooth, but you could also use an immersion blender as well.

If you aren't keeping this vegan, you can add in some chicken broth powder, I like this brand. Otherwise, you can stick to vegetable broth. And feel free to add in some other spices if you want, chili flakes are always a good idea.

If you do make this soup, please tag me and let me know on Instagram or leave a comment and rating below. 

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Do you love soup as much as I do? Share with me your favourite soup below, I'd love to know!