Loaded Cauliflower Soup With Bacon And Cheddar For Full GAPS

This loaded cauliflower soup has a thick, creamy base with cheddar stirred through it and bacon scattered over the top. Green onion adds a fresh bite, with jalapeño and cultured sour cream available for anyone who wants them. The cauliflower is cooked until soft, then blended into the stock and homemade soft cheese.

Use homemade salt-only bacon, roasted beef meat stock and drained homemade yogurt cheese. These preparations have their own recipes and need to be finished before starting this pot of soup. The same quantity of chicken meat stock is another option if you prefer it.

I cook before leaving for second-shift work, with homeschooling and the rest of our weekday happening around it. For a soup like this, I would check the stock and drained cheese first. Having plain yogurt in the refrigerator is not quite the same as having eight ounces of finished curd ready, and the cooling stage before blending needs a place in the plan too.

Ingredients

• ½ pound homemade salt-only bacon
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 pounds plain frozen cauliflower
• 1 quart homemade beef meat stock
• 1 teaspoon natural sea salt, to taste
• ½ teaspoon black pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried chives
• 8 ounces drained homemade full-fat yogurt cheese
• 4 ounces natural traditionally made sharp cheddar, shredded
• 4 green onions, white and light-green parts sliced
• Optional jalapeño slices
• Optional homemade cultured sour cream

The frozen cauliflower should be plain florets. The fresh alternative for the original batch is one head, cut into florets. A fresh head’s weight varies. For either form, cook until the florets are completely soft.

Measure a quart of finished meat stock. Beef gives this version a deeper savory flavor, while chicken makes a lighter-tasting base. Keep the stock’s own fat with it. If it has gelled in the refrigerator, it will loosen as it warms in the soup pot.

Weigh the yogurt cheese after draining. It should be thick enough to scoop and hold together, rather than loose yogurt that runs across the bowl. Blending it with the cooled cauliflower base helps spread that soft cheese evenly through the soup.

The cheddar is a separate four-ounce amount. Shred it from a block after weighing. It goes in during the final gentle warming stage, once the cauliflower and yogurt cheese have been blended.

Stock, bacon and cheddar all bring salt. The listed teaspoon is a starting amount, with the final taste checked after the cheese has gone in. Avoid adding more simply because the pot looks large.

How To Make Loaded Cauliflower Soup

1. Chop the prepared homemade bacon into roughly one-inch pieces. Cook it in a stockpot over medium heat until cooked through and as crisp as you like. Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion and peel and crush the garlic.
2. Lift out the bacon, leaving its rendered fat in the pot. Keep the bacon separately covered in the refrigerator while the soup base cooks and cools.
3. Add the onion and garlic to the bacon fat. Cook for about twenty minutes, stirring as needed, until the onion is soft and beginning to brown and the garlic smells fragrant. Reduce the heat if the garlic begins scorching.
4. Add the cauliflower, measured finished meat stock, salt, pepper and dried chives. Cook over medium-high heat, covered, for about twenty minutes until the cauliflower is completely soft and easily mashed with a fork. Shred the cheddar and slice the green onions and optional jalapeño while the vegetables cook.
5. Take the base off the heat. Transfer it to shallow heat-safe containers and cool it rapidly, using an ice-water bath around the container if helpful. Keep that cooling water out of the soup. For the Ninja BN801 route, wait until the mixture is completely at room temperature before blending.
6. Divide the cooled soup base and drained yogurt cheese among blender batches as needed. Secure the Ninja BN801 pitcher and lid, keep every portion below its marked 64-fluid-ounce maximum liquid line, and blend until the cauliflower and soft cheese are evenly smooth. Stop before opening. Return all the blended soup to the pot.
7. Warm gently over medium-low heat. Stir in the shredded cheddar and continue stirring until it melts and the soup is hot throughout. Keep the heat gentle rather than boiling the cheese mixture hard. Taste before adding any extra salt.
8. Serve in eight portions, topping with the reserved cooked bacon and sliced green onions. Add optional jalapeño and homemade cultured sour cream at the table. Keep toppings separate from any soup you plan to store.

The bacon does two jobs. Its rendered fat cooks the onion and garlic, while the cooked pieces are held back for the topping. Leave that fat in the pot when you lift the bacon out, so the onion starts in the same pan.

Give the onion and garlic their twenty-minute cooking stage. The onion should become soft, with the first browned edges, and the pan should smell savory. Watch the garlic while you stir. A fragrant, lightly browned onion mixture is the aim, not blackened garlic stuck to the bottom.

After the cauliflower and stock go in, cover the pot and cook until the florets are completely tender. Press a piece with a fork. It should mash readily, with no firm center that will remain as a grainy piece after blending.

My blender is the Ninja BN801, and its guide prohibits hot liquids. Cool the soup base completely before using it. Shallow heat-safe containers and an ice-water bath around them help move that cooling along without adding water to the recipe.

Blend in batches rather than filling the pitcher beyond its marked liquid limit. Share the measured yogurt cheese among the batches, then return all the blended soup to the pot. Check for remaining florets or large curd pieces before finishing.

Add the cheddar over gentle heat and stir until it has melted into the hot soup. The finished base should coat the spoon, with the cauliflower giving it body. Homemade curd and stock vary, so watch the actual mixture rather than expecting it to behave exactly like a packaged cheese sauce.

Where It Fits On GAPS

This is a Full GAPS soup after the dairy foods have been introduced. In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride describes dripping homemade yogurt or kefir to make soft cheese, followed by introducing natural, traditionally made cheeses. This recipe uses the yogurt-cheese choice and sharp cheddar together.

The bacon is the homemade salt-only preparation, cooked in the soup pot before the vegetables. The stock is finished homemade meat stock.

If you need an earlier cauliflower soup, cauliflower egg yolk soup for Intro Stage 2 has its own ingredients and method. It is a separate recipe. Leaving the toppings off this loaded soup does not remove the yogurt cheese and cheddar already blended into the base.

This formula is egg-free and uses no nuts. It contains dairy, and the cheese is a defining part of its flavor.

Serving And Storing

Divide the soup into eight servings and put the bacon and green onion on at the end. The crisp bacon gives a different texture from the blended base. Keep the jalapeño and sour cream at the table so each bowl can be finished to taste.

The cultured sour cream adds a cool, tangy spoonful against the hot cheddar soup. Spoon the finished homemade sour cream onto the individual bowls after heating. It is optional and is not included in the eight-ounce yogurt-cheese amount.

For leftovers, cool promptly in shallow containers, cover and refrigerate. Plan to use the soup within three days. Keep the bacon and raw toppings separately chilled so they do not sit in the soup and lose their texture.

Reheat the amount you need gently, stirring across the bottom until it is hot throughout. Leftovers should reach 165°F. Add the bacon, green onion and any cold sour cream afterward instead of repeatedly reheating a fully topped bowl.

The forty-minute vegetable-cooking field covers the two roughly twenty-minute vegetable stages. Bacon cooking, warming the stock, cooling, blending and the final cheese warming add time. This is a soup to plan around those stages rather than a promise of forty minutes from chopping to serving.

Recommended Equipment

Use a stockpot, a cutting board, knife and stirring spoon, plus a grater for the cheddar. Have shallow heat-safe containers ready for cooling and a larger vessel for an ice-water bath if you want to cool the base that way.

The Ninja BN801 pitcher has a marked maximum liquid line of sixty-four fluid ounces. Keep each cooled blender batch beneath that line and secure the lid. A larger recipe needs more batches, not a fuller pitcher. Have the pot ready to collect all the purée for the final warming stage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Use Fresh Cauliflower?

Yes. The fresh choice is one head in florets for the original batch, compared with two pounds of plain frozen cauliflower. Use the fork-soft endpoint for either, and remember that a head’s actual size varies.

Does Chicken Stock Work Too?

Yes, use the same quart of prepared chicken meat stock in place of the beef stock. The linked chicken method starts with a whole raw chicken and its meaty parts. Keep the stock preparation in its own recipe and measure the finished liquid for this soup.

Why Blend The Yogurt Cheese With The Base?

The thick drained cheese is easier to distribute while blending the cooled cauliflower mixture. The cheddar is added afterward and melted over gentle heat. That keeps the two cheese preparations clear instead of expecting a lump of drained curd to disappear by stirring alone.

When Should I Add The Toppings?

Add them to the individual bowls at serving time. The bacon keeps more of its crisp texture, the green onion stays fresh, and the optional sour cream remains a cool contrast to the hot base.

The upcoming Soups & Stews Cookbook in the WFLI shop offers more soups for regular family cooking. Keep your prepared stock recipes close by so the stock is ready when you want to start the vegetables.