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If you are looking for a great low carb soup recipe, look no further. My new Instant Pot Leek & Cauliflower Low Carb Soup was demolished by all four members of our family, a relative miracle when you have a picky eater in the family! This is creamy, rich and chock full of vegetable goodness.
Instant Pot Low Carb Soup
‘Tis the season to bring out the Instant Pot and leave it on the counter…..until spring. Karlynn and I use it almost daily to make soups once the cold weather hits, the kids love to have a bowl before swim team to fuel up ( and swim team this year is 5 days a week, Lord help us) and we usually have a bowl of soup for a quick lunch during the week.
We find that using the Instant Pot for soup speeds up the process a lot – and even times when it doesn't, there is something to be said for putting a lid on it and LEAVING. When you have something simmering on the stove top you are always watching it, walking over to stir it and babying it a bit. Not the pressure cooker. Start it, leave and come back when it beeps. It's not going to spill over onto your stove and make a mess, you don't have to stir it and it keeps food hot perfectly. We will make a soup for lunch, put the lid back on and leave it in the Instant Pot on the “keep warm” setting until the kids get home at 3. It's still piping hot and ready for them to eat when they get home.
Cauliflower Soup For the Low Carb Win
It's already commonly known that cauliflower is a go-to for EVERYTHING low carb – mashed cauliflower, cauliflower rice and yes, soups galore. I love leeks, so a leek and cauliflower soup sounded like a combination of my two favourite soups together. I didn't put any cheese in this, but I can see that perhaps a Swiss Cheese might be nice and sharp in this rich soup, but I wouldn't put it past a cheddar cheese to be excellent in this as well.
The real trick to keeping it low carb is to NOT use milk ( which has a lot of carbs in it) but to use heavy whipping cream instead. It's richer and has fewer carbs. This soup doesn't need thickening with anything at the end either.
Using Leeks in Soup
There are a few tips and tricks to using leeks in your cooking:
- You don't use the woody green stalks of leeks, just the pale white/pale green parts. You can see in the photo above how and where you are suppose to chop them. You DO want to use as much as possible, so a little bit of light green colour is fine.
- Leeks have hidden dirt between the layers usually. You are going to have to chop off the aforementioned green parts and then make sure to rinse the paler parts well!
- Leeks are like onions, you have to make sure they are cooked fairly well before you add them to a soup or dish. With the Instant Pot cooking however this isn't as big of a deal.
And there you have it! A great low carb soup recipe for you to try. My favorite part is that I still have two leeks left out of my bunch, oh darn, looks like there is more leek soup to be made this week.
Happy low carbing,
Mike
Instant Pot Leek & Cauliflower Low Carb Soup Recipe
- Course
- Soup
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 8
- Calories
- 201
- Author
- Karami Urbanoski
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 leeks white/pale green part only, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 large head cauliflower chopped
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Diced green onion and bacon to top is desired
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil and butter in the bottom of your Instant Pot using the "sautee" feature, and Saute the leeks, cauliflower, and garlic for about 10 minutes.
- Add in the chicken brother and stir.
- Place the lid of the Instant Pot on and seal.
- Press the "soup" button and choose 30 minutes.
- Once the Instant Pot is done, you can either use a manual release ( place a tea towel over the steam spout and turn to release, making sure not to burn yourself) or let it release naturally according to the owners manual.
- You will NOT overcook this as you want everything soft anyways,
- Carefully remove the lid of the Instant Pot according to the owners manual.
- Blend the soup with an immersion blender or hand mixer.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Mix in the heavy cream and continue blending until the soup is very smooth.
- Garnish with green onions and/or cooked bacon.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Anna says
This turned out super yummy! Loved the simplicity with amazing taste.