Cream.
We’re hardwired to crave it.
Comfort foods feel comfortable for a reason. Such concentrated cow’s milk hits us like a drug–literally dopamine to our brains–conditioning us to duplicate this experience.
When you go nutritarian, you’ll still want that wonderful creamy texture, but you know full-well that real cream will not help you gain health excellence.
That’s why Dr. Fuhrman placed this recipe front-and-center in his best-seller, Eat to Live. This is hands-down the perfect beginner’s nutritarian soup!
Get Your Cream-Fix From Cauliflower
All the creamy goodness in this soup is supplied by cauliflower and a cup full of raw cashews, all blended up, nice and creamy.
You can see this cauliflower-cashew cream sauce hack at work in this Nutritarian Mashed Potato Recipe and this Nutritarian Mushroom Gravy Recipe too. You’ll soon be getting your own cauliflower-creamy inspiration to add richness to your whole food plant-based favorites!
Remember, you can’t completely gorge-out on cauliflower-cashew cream. Raw cashews provide healthy fats but when you have excess fat to lose you really want to be mindful to keep it under 1 ounce of nuts and seeds daily (per Dr. Fuhrman’s aggressive weight-loss plan, p. 216 Eat to Live).
I love that this soup take easy-to-find ingredients and makes something that tastes absolutely gourmet from them!
Seriously, the most “exotic” item, if you can even call it that, is carrot juice. You’ll only need 2 cups and most health foods stores carry this in the perfect 16 oz. portion with the rest of their pre-made smoothies and juices.
You’re going to love how super-simple it is to make this soup!
Boil and simmer your veggies and carrot juice, then blend up 2/3rds of the veggies with your raw cashews.
It creates this gorgeous golden-yellow color that I promise will just make you happy to look at–literally a bowl of sunshine that’s doing amazing things for your body!
With all the loads of healthful veggies in the base of this soup–you know Dr. Fuhrman had to ratchet it up a notch and add in lightly-steamed greens!
You can use spinach or kale, and it really provides a lovely mouth-feel to the light and creamy soup base.
This soup is a study in contrasts…
It has a super-light texture but is surprisingly filling. It has an over-all savory taste with subtle sweetness from the carrots and carrot juice. The nutmeg rounds out and harmonizes all the flavors and really gives a great complement to the baby kale.
Bottom line: you need to make a big pot of this soup right away!
Then come on back and let me know what you think!

Golden Austrian Cauliflower Cream Soup
An easy-to-make vegan, oil-free, no-added-salt, nutritarian soup from Dr. Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" book and 6-week plan.
Ingredients
- 5 cups kale or baby spinach (I used baby kale)
- 4 cups water
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 3 large carrots, diced (about 1 1/4 cup)
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 2 leeks, chopped
- 2 cups carrot juice
- 2 cloves garlic minced (or sub 1 to 2 tsp. garlic powder)
- 2 tbsp no-salt seasoning
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Instructions
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Place everything except the kale and cashews into a large pot over medium-high heat.
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Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover cooking for another 15 to 20 minutes. Veggies should be fork-tender.
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If you're using kale, steam it very lightly in the microwave (or steamer). If you are using spinach there is no need to steam it will cook in the hot soup.
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In a high-speed blender, blend two-thirds of the soup liquid and veggies. Add the cashews and blend on "hot soup" setting until smooth and creamy. You can also let the soup cool down first if you don't have the hot soup setting. Or use an immersion blender.
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Add the blended mixture back into the pot and stir in the kale or spinach.
Recipe Notes
Makes about 9 cups.
Hey! This looks yummy!
I live in a food desert and we don’t have carrot juice (or much of anything not S.A.D.) and I don’t have a juicer. Would broth work ok or do you have another recommendation?
Thanks!
Liz
Hi Liz!
Lol! A “food dessert”–that doesn’t sound good 🙁
You know what might work? Make a carrot broth! Chop up some carrots or use some carrot scraps and boil them in water!
Let me know how it goes! Definitely one of my favorite recipes!
xo, Kristen
If you have a walmart I got carrot juice there…or do you truly live in a desert!
Would cashew milk work instead of liquifing cashews in the vitamix?
Hi Amalia!
I don’t see why not–sounds logical to me!
Please let me know how it turns out!
xo, Kristen
My daughter can’t have nutmeg…would leaving it out change the flavor a lot?
Hi Mandy,
No I don’t think that will make too much of a difference at all!
Let me know what you think!
xo, Kristen
Kristin – this soup is delicious. Thanks so much for putting together this incredibly appealing website and helping me to eat so much healthier!
– Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
Thank you so very much for taking the time to make and review this recipe! Yay! I’m so happy you love it as much as I do!
Much appreciation for your kind words!
xo, Kristen
I love this soup, reminds me of a comfort food grandma would make.
I add roasted mushrooms at the end and it just adds a good texture.
Hi Jennifer!
Yay!! I’m so happy to hear you love this soup! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review!
YES!! I do the same thing with the mushrooms–perfect compliment!
xo, Kristen
I NEVER post comments, but i made this soup for dinner tonight and it was beyond delicious I just had to compliment you and thank you for sharing it. In addition to how yummy it was, it felt amazing knowing how healthy and clean/wholesome it is. Everything that went into it was simple and nutritious. I am simply blown away and in awe.
Thank you for this from the bottom of my tummy 🙂
Oh that’s so wonderful to hear!! And thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review and comment! I cna’t take the credit for this one–it’s all Dr. Fuhrman!
xo, Kristen
Simply delicious! I added some fresh lemon juice and red pepper flakes, man, so good!
I have recently discovered your blog and have been very inspired. I am planning on making this soup and was wondering if it was good prepped in advance and just reheated later or if it is better fresh off the stove? TIA!
Hi Nathalie!
This soup is wonderful made ahead–that’s one of the reasons I love it so much! Hope you enjoy it as well and I’m so happy you made your way here!
xo, Kristen
This was fantastic. I am from the Caribbean, so I upped the spiciness of this. I think next time I will add a little curry.
Great job!
So when you say no salt seasoning, do you have one you recommend? What pairs best with this soup? Looks amazing by the way. Cant wait to try it!
Hi, I haven’t made this yet. My husband is allergic to nuts. Any non-nut substitute for the cashews? Or just make it without the cashews?
Hi Amy,
Because there is cauliflower in there you could absolutely leave out the nuts and it will still be creamy. You might be missing that fat so perhaps slice up 1/4 Has avocado and serve that on top of the soup!
Kristen
I keep making this soup! It is AMAZING!!! We’ve added ginger and a splash of Tamari to our individual bowls.
Love those seasonings you added in a nd thanks so much fro taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it!
I saw this recipe many years ago when following Eat To Live. It didn’t appeal to me. I mean 2 cups of carrot juice? I really don’t care for that. But, now many years later and following Eat to Live again, I thought, why not, I mean, you make it sound so good – sunshine in a bowl? Tons of nutrients? Tons of greens? So made up a big pot yesterday and it’s AMAZING! I mean, it’s so much better than I even thought it would be and you are so right. Because of the cashews, it fills you up after just a little bit of soup. It made about 10 cups blended and I’m pretty sure it will last me all week! Thanks for writing the recipe up to make it seem appealing! Next up – curry lentils!!!
Oh, I’m SO happy to hear that you trusted me enough to give this soup another try, Tricia!
Also, thanks so much for including the recipe yield as I need to update these recipes with the yields soon!
Just asking, I’m allergic to soy and cashews. Is there anything else which can be swapped out for these ingredients?
Hi Kimberly, there is no soy in this soup so in place of the cashews you can used slivered almonds–very similar flavor profile and color!
This was tasty and filling and made a ton. We had soup for a snack for days. I had to bring the juicer out for the carrot juice, and I wish there was a recipe for the salt free seasoning mix as I don’t have one. We just seasoned with salt and what we had available.
So happy to hear that you enjoyed this soup recipe, Haley! I just use no-salt seasoning from Costco–any brand will do–but that its my personal favorite!
This is a wonderful soup. Even my husband and daughter liked it, though they did add salt to theirs. I added 2 cups of halved baby portabellas, because the recipe I had (there are obviously a bunch of iterations of this recipe on the web) included those and I would highly recommend. Or as another poster commented, add roasted mushrooms at the end. I may try that next. 🙂
Hi Kristi, yes, one thing I really love about this soup is that it can work with lots of different toppings–so it’s very customizable. So happy to hear that it was a hit with your family!
Hi!
Like Janice, I was wondering what the non salt spice blend was? Is it a specific flavour profile like Italian or Greek? Or is it more generic than that (thinking Mrs.Dash)?
Hi Tina,
Yes, it’s generic like Mrs. Dash or I like to use Costco’s Kirkland No-Salt Seasoning!
xo, Kristen
My husband is allergic to nuts. Any recommendation for a substitute for the cashews? Or just leave them out?
Hi Amy,
You could do blanched almonds or even sunflowers for a similar consistency and flavor profile. You definitely want some fat added in!
Let me know how it goes!
xo, Kristen
I boil up some carrots then puree them. I add that to the soup instead of carrot juice. Yummy! It works perfectly!
Oh, I love that tip Amy, thanks so much for sharing!
xo, Kristen