Red Pepper and Cauliflower Chowder Recipe on Food52 (2024)

One-Pot Wonders

by: Kendra Vaculin

October24,2014

4

6 Ratings

  • Prep time 20 minutes
  • Cook time 45 minutes
  • Serves 3

Jump to Recipe

Author Notes

A chowder is a milk-based soup, if you're wondering. Which this is, and which is the only kind of soup worth souping. Please, read on. —Kendra Vaculin

  • Test Kitchen-Approved

What You'll Need

Ingredients
  • For the soup:
  • 1 tablespoonolive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • 1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
  • 1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
  • 2 cupsroughly chopped cauliflower
  • 2 cupsvegetable stock
  • 1 cupwhole milk
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 teaspoonground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoonground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspooncrushed red pepper flakes
  • For serving:
  • Grated parmesan
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
  1. In a large pot, heat a drizzle of olive oil on medium-high until hot. Add the garlic and onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add the bell pepper and crushed red pepper flakes and continue to cook until the pepper is softened, 5 minutes.
  2. Add the potato, cauliflower, stock, milk, bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, cumin, and coriander. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally and mashing a bit with the back of a spoon, 10 to 15 minutes, or until the potato and cauliflower are tender. Turn off the heat. Let cool slightly
  3. Ladle about 2/3 of the vegetable chunks and a little bit of liquid into a blender and blend until smooth (or use an immersion blender and leave some chunkiness un-blended). Be careful! This is hot! Duh. Return the blended soup to the pot; heat over medium and stir to combine, heating everything through.
  4. Serve the soup with black pepper and parmesan on top.

Tags:

  • Chowder
  • Soup
  • American
  • Cauliflower
  • Milk/Cream
  • Pepper
  • Cheese
  • Vegetable
  • One-Pot Wonders
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Vegetarian

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Annie Wood

  • CristyLeeNYC

  • Jimmy Newman

  • Synky

  • Rachael Spiegel

Popular on Food52

36 Reviews

MaryG November 29, 2019

Wonderfully rich and delish! My family wants it to be a regular. I took the advice of roasting the cauliflower...a good flavor booster, I'm sure.

Annie W. September 13, 2018

So grateful for this recipe - I returned home from a two week road trip to a couple nearly dead peppers and a head of cauliflower. I scrounged for some of the other ingredients; subbing a big spoonful of greek yogurt for the dairy, adding an onion, swapping out some of the spices (adding turmeric, chili powder and cumin) and unintentionally forgetting about the garlic - but this turned out to be a winner, nonetheless. Will definitely be on my "what to do with this head of cauliflower" list in the future!

CristyLeeNYC November 28, 2017

Tossed the cauliflower with the oil, salt, and spices, along with a handful of garlic cloves in foil and a quartered onion, and roasted them at 425 before throwing in the pot. Even with the oven add (and no parm), this was a tasty, easy soup.

Jimmy N. November 1, 2017

I'm going to use coconut milk, add red curry paste and chicken and have it over rice

Synky September 17, 2017

I changed it up a little bit (actually a lot) and came out with great results! First off I added an onion, b/c they're tasty in soups and another comment suggested to add one as well. Instead of milk and vegetable brooth I used chicken stock. Came out great, and popular with the children! Thank you for the recipe!

ghainskom November 17, 2015

The flavors was much more complex than I expected from such a simple recipe. And the kids liked it.

Rachael S. February 22, 2015

I followed this recipe exactly and found the soup quite bland. If I were going to make it again I might roast the cauliflower first and add in some onions or mirepoix.

Gina P. February 18, 2015

I wanted to prep everything for when I came home from the gym, but it was so simple, I found myself making (and eating) it before even leaving. I felt one potato was too much, and was picking out some chunks before blending it. It could be a personal preference, but next time I'm going to use half a potato and maybe some more bell pepper. All around, solid addition to my recipe index.

Ashley W. January 12, 2015

Has anyone tried with Almond Milk?

Gina P. February 18, 2015

I did! It came out great, used 1 cup

Molly L. January 11, 2015

I just made this for 2 lunches this week. I could have eaten the entire thing with a spoon right from the pot!! I used a sweet potato and did 1/4 tsp smoked paprika and 1/4 tsp reg paprika because I didn't have a bay leaf or coriander. This is SO, SO, SO good!!!

Mother_of_plants January 10, 2015

great recipe, thanks! I threw in some red pepper flakes and they made the other flavors pop.

Brooke J. January 6, 2015

Very filling and delicious. Even my nine and seven year olds loved it! Also used the immersion blender and it was great! Some cayenne would be great addition for the grown-ups. Bravo!

kitchencat December 31, 2014

Used immersion blender to make this clever recipe with coconut milk & sweet potato: big hit!

Leslie A. December 25, 2014

Ohmygosh this recipe is AMAZING. Thank you!! Added a little more of the spices + some cayenne pepper b/c we like a little kick. Perfection.

shoestringmama December 9, 2014

Wondering if anyone has tried this with roasted cauliflower?

Megan S. December 5, 2014

I am so surprised how wonderful this soup was. I subbed sweet potato for potato but followed all the other ingredients. Question, do you think it would turn out with Almond Milk instead of regular milk? The soup really does remind me of Chowder!

Dea H. November 17, 2014

We really liked this. I did use an immersion blender instead of lugging out the huge blender. It probably wasn't as smooth as it would have been in the blender, but we actually liked a few chunks in the soup. I also added a bit of pan-crisped Spanish chorizo with the Parmesan garnish. It added a nice smoky taste.

Grace A. November 17, 2014

This turned out amazing! It would be helpful to include some more specifics in the recipe, like what size pot to use (I think I used an 8 quart pot), and tell everyone to take the bay leaf out before blending (the pieces would be too sharp to eat).

ronn November 15, 2014

what kind of red pepper

Dea H. November 15, 2014

Bell pepper.

Margaret M. November 13, 2014

Easy, delicious and beautiful. This recipe is a keeper! Will triple it for a winter party (and credit the source, of course)...

Red Pepper and Cauliflower Chowder Recipe on Food52 (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Edwin Metz

Last Updated:

Views: 5831

Rating: 4.8 / 5 (78 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Edwin Metz

Birthday: 1997-04-16

Address: 51593 Leanne Light, Kuphalmouth, DE 50012-5183

Phone: +639107620957

Job: Corporate Banking Technician

Hobby: Reading, scrapbook, role-playing games, Fishing, Fishing, Scuba diving, Beekeeping

Introduction: My name is Edwin Metz, I am a fair, energetic, helpful, brave, outstanding, nice, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.