How to add flavor and texture? Cream of Cauliflower Soup, too spicy but flat in other flavors?

You''ve already had recommend actions for some warm but not too peppery spice blends, garam Masala and zaatar. Another few to consider: Yemenite hawaidj (various spelling), north African ras al hanout, middle eastern berbere (Jordan, etc different versions). Also various amercan steak rubs or blends for grilling give surprising depths to vegetable soups. A starchy veetable like potato, sweet potato and/or parsnip will give thickness, sweetness and different flavor. Also, did you have (enough) butter in the soup? Like salt, it's a great flavor booster.

Your soup could also be flat tasting if you used a a weak-tasting stock. In that case you can add a little bit of Better Than Bouillion as a little cheat to boost the flavor (though not the cauliflower flavor). It also happens to be pretty salty, which can boost the flavor as well.

What about adding a chimichurri sauce - parsley and oregano, garlic, olive oil and white wine vinegar...thinking that would be good and you could still add in some of the other ideas mentioned (nuts, roasted carrots, even roasted cauliflower)

There are a lot of things you can do to lift the flavor of the soup. first of all, did you add any salt? Salt added early in th cooking process lifts all the other flavors and allows them to pop. You don't have to use much, but you do need a good quality salt. I usually prefer coarse sea salt. I love curries, but I also like the taste of cauliflower, and when you introduce a dominating flavor like curry, you rather lose the flavor of the primary ingredient. Just another aspect to consider. In the matter of texture, how about not pureeing all the cauliflower? If you chop some of it up, you will add texture. I like to crumble crisp bacon on top for flavor and texture. or some pancetta -- whatever is handy. Chopped toasted walnuts have a complimentary flavor to cauliflower as well.

When something tastes flat, I also find that what it usually needs is a splash of some sort of acid - lemon or lime juice or some sort of vinegar. I'd do lemon here, or maybe cider vinegar to build on the apple already in the soup. Also, never underestimate the power of salt to bring flavor to life.

Cauliflower + curry = yum. Toast some sweet curry powder or garam masala in a dry skillet and whisk it into the soup. Consider extra salt and some acid to help punch up the flavor a bit, too.

What were the other ingredients in the soup? I personally would not be inclined to add carrots, but there's no reason you couldn't!