One Pot Cauliflower Chowder Recipe [+ Video]

4.25 from 12 votes

This post is written in partnership with Milk Life, but all opinions are always our own.

Move over, corn chowder and back it up, loaded baked potato soup, this one pot cauliflower chowder recipe is the best fall soup this year!

Read about how we make this killer cauliflower chowder just after the recipe. No joke, even our kids said it was just as good as my Golden Loaded Baked Potato Soup, and that soup is famous!

Fall isn’t just about the changing colors for me, it’s about harvest season too. My parents grew up on or around farms so my childhood was filled with stories about farming and growing our own garden. I loved those stories.

Many of my mom’s stories were centered around milk and those darling cows. I remember feeding my first as a very little girl and those big brown eyes just sucked me right in. My sweet Grandma wrote down her own stories about the cows and the fresh cream over her mama’s Heirloom Apple Rolls.

Farm to Table Milk

In a society that’s always pushing for newer and faster we’ve really loved this refocusing on farm to table. Did you know that milk is actually one of the original farm-to-table foods? In fact, 77 percent of moms don’t realize how far their milk typically travels from farm to glass, according to a new survey conducted by the Milk Life Campaign among more than 1,000 moms.

Milk often starts out from dairy farms about 300 miles away from your grocery store, and typically arrives to grocery stores in just 48 hours, on average, after leaving the farm. Kind of makes you feel like in such a noisy world you can make one simple purchase that feels a little quieter, a little closer to home, doesn’t it.

Our kids love milk. Whether it’s poured over cereal, served alongside dinner or used to dunk big, gooey chocolate chip cookies in it’s a normal part of our lives. We can count on it as a nutritious decision and something that helps fill up hungry bellies between meals without senseless snacking. I mean for me too, don’t you dare think I’m not standing at the pantry at 3:00 every day. 😉

Family Time

Every Monday we have FHE, family home evening. We gather as a family and play games, go somewhere fun, have a short lesson and treats or whatever. Oh my goodness, we had so much fun teaching our kids about milk’s farm-to-glass journey.

You see, we always think, what do we want our kids to know, what do we want them to feel and what do we want them to do. It’s a great way to interact as a family without being preachy or boring. No one made it through my Dad’s boring lectures, but laughing through farm to glass videos on youtube with a toddler yelling, “TOW, TOW!!! MOOOOOOO!” all while enjoying a hearty bowl of one pot cauliflower chowder, #WINNING

Check out this cutie when I was picking a video to watch with the kids for FHE. He was going crazy for the videos, especially the cows. We ended up watching 6 Milk Life’s Glass in Session -Tube videos in a row!

Of the 47,000 dairy farms in the United States, 97 percent – small and large – are family owned, and when we mentioned that, the girls decided they wanted a cow and to produce milk. Yeah, we still have a little more learning to do. I’m thinking we will visit a local dairy, Heber Valley Cheese is right around the mountain, my goal is to try to find a way to do a tour with the family and enjoy a little cheese and ice cream, our favorite things.

We let our kids make this one pot cauliflower chowder with us and then ended with a challenge to find a way to drink milk with every meal this week.

Cauliflower Chowder

This cauliflower chowder started out with the idea to roast the cauliflower but it’s still hot here in Utah so I ditched the oven and changed my plans.

Best Pot for Soup

Start your one pot cauliflower chowder out by chopping your bacon into little pieces and add them to a Dutch oven to render out the fat. Once the bacon is cooked, and it won’t take long, use a slotted spoon to remove the pieces to a paper towel lined plate. Drain the fat out of the pot but do not wipe clean. Those browned bits on the bottom will happen if you’ve used a Dutch oven or stainless steel pot. That’s why you always see our Le Creuset, bits of the food are on the bottom and they add a ridiculous amount of flavor to any meal.

Place a little butter and olive oil in the pot and add your onion, carrot and celery and once they start cooking, about 2 minutes, add the cauliflower and cook and turn the heat down to medium low for 15 minutes or until tender. At this point add your garlic and thyme that way they become fragrant, but don’t burn due to the long 15 minutes.

How to Thicken Soup

Next it’s all a matter of thickening things up. Add the flour and a little more oil if the bottom of the pot is dry, and stir until the veggies are all coated. Pour in the liquids, salt and pepper and bay leaf and allow to simmer 20-40 minutes over low heat. We are hungry by this point and usually just do 20.

Taste the soup right before serving and add more salt if it’s bland. Serve the one pot cauliflower chowder with bacon bits, cheese and parsley!

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