Healthy Quinoa Cauliflower Chowder (Gluten-Free)

Name: Healthy Quinoa Cauliflower Chowder
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 onion (chopped); 6 garlic cloves (minced); 1/4 cup white wine; 2 stalks of celery (sliced); 1 carrot (sliced); 4 cups cauliflower; 4 cups stock; 3/4 cup quinoa; 6 sprigs thyme; 2 bay leaves; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 cup milk; 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

November 26, 2016 156 Comments

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This deceptively healthy quinoa and cauliflower chowder is packed full of veggies, but is still extremely hearty!

One of my favorite soups in the whole world is cauliflower cheese soup, from my mom’s old Moosewood cookbook. The page is dog-eared and splattered with soup, and has been made so many times that we don’t even need the cookbook anymore.

I can distinctly remember having my wisdom teeth removed and living off that soup for days. I had to put the spoon all the way to the back of my tongue to avoid my stitches, and ate it for days and days. Did I get sick of it? Nope. That’s how darn good it was.

Today I’m sharing my ode to this soup, but I’ve put my own Denise spin on it. Today’s quinoa and cauliflower chowder is chunky, and has a big boost of protein thanks to some quinoa.

Today’s post is sponsored by my friends at Sears Canada, who sent me the brand new Kenmore Pro Blender to try out! At $149.00 (pssst! It’s on sale for $99 at the moment!), this blender is an awesome and much more affordable alternative to the other heavy duty blenders out there.

It made quick work of my frozen smoothie packs, blending them to smooth perfection. Whereas my small blender often takes several attempts, adding more and more almond milk to get the smoothie pack to finally blend right, the Kenmore Pro had it blended in seconds.

Sears and Kenmore are giving away a blender to one lucky Canadian reader! Scroll to the bottom of the post for instructions on how you can enter (CONTEST HAS ENDED).

The Kenmore Pro blender also made quick work of this quinoa and cauliflower chowder. You can even fit the whole batch of soup in the blender if you want to have a completely creamy (and not chunky) soup. Check out how creamy it looks:

Looking at this quinoa and cauliflower chowder, you’d think that it was loaded with cream, but the fact is there is just one cup of 1% milk. That’s it! I’ve also added 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, which goes so nicely with the cauliflower/garlic/thyme flavors. I’m such a sucker for those flavors.

Adding the quinoa really bulks it up, gives the soup more body, and leaves you feeling full for longer. I hate it when I get hungry an hour after lunch. That is NOT going to happen with this soup.

This is another recipe that is full of food memories, and brings me to my happy place. I hope it takes you to a happy place, too!

CONTEST HAS ENDED. WINNER WILL BE NOTIFIED SHORTLY.

Disclosure: thank you to Sears Canada for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

More soup for you!

this Thai Curry Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup is creamy and dreamy
this Slow Cooker Thai Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is SO easy to make
and you’d never guess that this Creamy Slow Cooker Potato, Corn & Jalapeno Soup is vegan!

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