Add onion and olive oil to a large pot and cook on medium heat until onion softens. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.

2. Add the cauliflower, butternut squash, beans, and just enough chicken broth to submerge everything. Bring soup to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are fork tender. 

3. Allow the soup to cool slightly, and then blend until completely smooth. I do it in batches in a Nutri-Bullet.

4. Return blended soup to the pot, and re-heat it gently over medium heat. Stir in pepper, celery salt, and Old Bay. While the soup is reheating, warm up the half & half on the stove or in the microwave, until it is hot to the touch. 

5. Gradually stir the heated half & half into the soup. Reduce heat to low, and do not let the soup boil. Stir in the cooking sherry and crab meat - you can microwave the crab for a few seconds just to warm it up before adding it to the soup. 

6. Serve and enjoy!

Notes:

You may find that the amount of Old Bay is too much for you, unless you like it's flavor as I do - You can add a partial amount of the Old Bay measurement to your soup, and then just add salt as needed from there.

If you have the time and devotion to very smooth soup, remove the skins from the white beans you use. It makes a world of difference in the texture, as most blenders, even the Nutri-Bullet, have a hard time fully breaking down the skins. 

This yields a fairly thin soup (compared to a normal cream of crab at least), as I don't use a roux at the beginning - lots of my family eat gluten free, and removing the roux makes this soup gluten free. If you want a thicker end result that's still gluten free, dissolve 1 Tbsp of corn starch in 2 Tbsps of water, and add to the soup after you have blended it and returned it to the stove. Bring the soup to a boil and then immediately reduce the heat and proceed with the rest of the recipe as written.