Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: You’ll love how creamy Instant Pot cauliflower potato soup is, with fewer carbs than a traditional creamy potato soup but oh, so delicious! This is a nutritious soup that feels really decadent, creamy and delicious.
How long it takes: 45 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: Instant Pot pressure cooker
Servings: makes 7 cups
Creamy potato Soup
So creamy but it’s faux creamy. The silky texture of this puréed cauliflower potato soup makes it seem like you’re enjoying an ultra-rich splurge. It tastes like a creamy bisque, laden with heavy cream and cheese. You’ll be pleasantly surprised when you find that there isn’t a bit of heavy cream or butter in the ingredient list, and only a mere half cup of shredded cheese. The taste is there but not the fat. Be sure to try my cauliflower Alfredo sauce, too.
Low carb. And to make it even better, cauliflower is low in carbs and super nutritious. Cauliflower rice is a popular low carb choice and can be used in lots of tasty ways, from side dishes to pizza crust. Have you tried my cauliflower nachos yet? So good, you won’t even miss the chips. You might also like air fryer buffalo cauliflower bites.
A good way to sneak in extra veggies. Even if you aren’t a fan of cauliflower, and I know there are a few of you out there, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this creamy potato soup. Quite honestly, it’s hard to discern the presence of cauliflower at all. It’s kind of a sneaky way to get your vegetables.
It’s ready to serve in 45 minutes. Like most Instant Pot recipes, this soup comes together pretty quickly. Everything is cooked right in the Instant Pot in thirty minutes, start to finish. Allow yourself fifteen minutes to clean and chop the cauliflower, potatoes, and onions, and you can have a delicious creamy soup on the table, complete with a lovely garnish of bacon crumbles, shredded cheddar cheese, and sliced green onions in less than an hour!
Ingredient Notes
- Cauliflower: Good news! Both frozen and fresh work in this recipe. Use whatever you have on hand. Don’t worry if the cauliflower is still frozen because it doesn’t matter a bit (yay!). Just dump the frozen cauliflower out of the bag and into the pot.
- Yukon Gold Potatoes: We recommend sticking with Yukon gold potatoes for the creamiest, silky soup. There’s no need to peel them first; just give them a quick scrub.
- Flavor: We keep things pretty simple in this soup; all you need are onion, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Liquids: The base of this soup is a combination of chicken stock and milk. I always use unsalted or low-salt chicken stock so that I can control the salt levels myself. For a vegetarian soup, use vegetable broth (and leave out the bacon).
- Cheddar Cheese: Stir a portion of the cheese in so it melts and flavors the soup, and reserve the remainder of the cheese to garnish your bowl of soup.
- Garnishes! Aren’t garnishes and toppings always the most fun part? For this soup, try crumbled bacon, more cheese, and sliced green onions or chopped parsley. Fresh chives are terrific, too, if you don’t have green onions.
How To Make Cauliflower Potato Soup
Sauté the bacon. The process of making this soup begins with a quick sauté of the bacon garnish. Don’t you just love the Sauté feature of the Instant Pot? So handy! Reserve the bacon, and use the drippings to sauté the onion next.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pressure cooker (except the cheese), and set the pressure for ten minutes. The pressure cooker will take about ten minutes to come to pressure, so you have twenty minutes of hands-off cooking.
That’s just enough time to make a quick salad to serve with your soup or a pan of whole wheat cornbread.
Release the pressure. When the timer goes off, quick release the pressure. Don’t be alarmed if your soup doesn’t look so great yet. It all comes together once it’s blended.
Purée the soup. Use a hand held blender to purée the soup. An alternative is to carefully transfer it to a blender to process. If you aren’t quite ready to serve the soup, keep it perfectly warm for up to an hour on the “Keep Warm” setting of your Instant Pot.
Add seasonings and cheese. Stir in the garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and some of the cheese and enjoy with your desired toppings!
Easy Recipe Variations
- Vegetarian option: Omit the bacon, and sauté the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil instead. Substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
- Experiment with toppings. Fresh chopped parsley, french-fried onions, homemade croutons, or fried sage leaves perfectly garnish this soup.
- Try a different cheese. Sharp cheddar cheese can be replaced with another type of cheese. Use a cheese with plenty of flavor and that melts well, such as a sharp fontina, Gruyère, or Swiss.
- Stovetop soup. This recipe can be adapted to cooking on the stove. However, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, you may want to try my roasted cauliflower soup.
- Not a fan of cauliflower? This five ingredient crockpot pumpkin soup is somewhat similar to this recipe (it also has potatoes). If you prefer, go in a different direction with smoky roasted tomato soup or creamy carrot soup.
Refrigerate: Leftover creamy cauliflower potato soup is fantastic and makes a great lunch. Store leftovers in a tightly covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days. We don’t recommend freezing this soup.
Reheat: Individual portions can be reheated in the microwave at 50% power until hot. Larger amounts can be reheated in a saucepan on the stovetop over low heat.
Free Meal Plan
Interested in a weekly meal plan that includes this recipe? Take a look at my Meal Plan #36. You’ll find a wholesome recipe for each weekday plus a categorized grocery list. Let me do the planning for you this week! We add a new meal plan weekly.
Instant Pot Soup Recipes
Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 strips bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
- ¾ cup coarsely chopped onion (about ½ onion)
- 3 large Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes (see note)
- 1 bag (16 oz.) frozen cauliflower florets, or fresh cauliflower, cut into florets
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken stock, divided
- 1 cup 2% milk (or whole milk)
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus more for garnish
- chopped fresh parsley or sliced green onions, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat Instant Pot using the Sauté function. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon and set it on a paper towel to drain. Reserve bacon pieces for garnish.3 strips bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
- Add onion to the pot and sauté, stirring occasionally, until it becomes soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup chicken stock and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze, removing all browned bits. Turn off Instant Pot.¾ cup coarsely chopped onion, 2 cups low-sodium chicken stock, divided
- Add potatoes, cauliflower, remaining chicken stock, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to the Instant Pot.3 large Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes, 1 bag (16 oz.) frozen cauliflower florets, or fresh cauliflower, cut into florets, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Attach lid and securely seal. Select Pressure Cook (or Manual, High Pressure setting). Set the timer for 10 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure.
- When the Instant Pot finishes cooking, quick release the pressure manually.
- Use an immersion blender to blend the soup to the desired consistency, or transfer it in batches to a blender to puree. Taste and add additional salt, pepper, or garlic powder, if desired.
- Stir in cheddar cheese until melted. Garnish with reserved bacon, additional cheese, parsley or green onion.½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus more for garnish
- Keep soup warm for up to 1 hour using the Keep Warm setting on the Instant Pot. Makes about 7 cups.
Notes
- Potatoes: Yukon gold potatoes make the creamiest soup– we don’t recommend substituting russet or red potatoes.
- Vegetarian option: Omit the bacon, and use 1 tablespoon of olive oil to sauté the onion. Substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
- More garnish ideas: Fresh chopped parsley, French-fried onions, homemade croutons, or fried sage leaves.
- Cheese options: Sharp cheddar cheese can be replaced with another type of cheese. Use a cheese with plenty of flavor and that melts well, such as a sharp fontina, Gruyère, or Swiss.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
How would you suggest making this if you wanted to have a few potato cubes in the final soup?
I would just scoop some out before you puree it. :)
Just wanting to know if this recipe is adaptable to a slow cooker…
Newbie to slow cookery.
It probably would be, but I haven’t tested it that way so I can’t say for sure.
I’ve made this many times! it’s healthy and yummy, perfect!!!
So glad to hear you like this recipe!
tasty
Thanks!