Roasted Garlic Soup - Amazing!

Garlic Soup, you say, wink wink. Really, Ms Sam, it's close to Halloween, but I'm not terribly worried about vampires. All good garlic jokes aside, this is one delicious soup, and something that everyone in my family likes. Yes, that is way more shocking than any pallid bloodsucker.

I found this soup in a Victoria magazine. I've gotten many good recipes out of them through the years and was intrigued. A soup that consists of little more than garlic and onions? On paper it sounds not so great, but the picture of the completed soup was somehow alluring. I let the idea stew for a bit. At the time my middle son was still living at home and he and I are the most adventurous eaters in the family. I decided to knock two new recipes out at one time- the garlic soup and and croque madame sandwich that were in the same article.

 My middle boy, Seth is a great fan of food and cooking, but he has never been one for onions. If you cook then down to where they meld inconspicuously with the ingredients, he loves the flavor they impart, just not the texture. In this soup they are pureed. Genius! The soup was a big hit, even with my youngest (and pickiest). The sandwich was good, but I am not a sandwich fan. I would rather have the poached egg and a good crusty slice of bread and be done with it.

But the soup...I fed it to my folks and a visiting relative for a simple Saturday lunch along with a loaf of homemade bread. That's it, nothing fancy. The relative didn't say much and so I thought he was just thankful for any sort of nourishment. But afterward, when the dishes were cleared, he told me that I should make a cookbook of all the things I make. That he would buy it. I was so flattered! It was the soup, Dear Reader.

 Do you need more encouragement to make this? Once when I made it, we were all sitting about the table rubbing our bellies in quiet satisfaction, and I was gazing at my scraped clean bowl with fondness and thinking what a lovely soup it was, what a nourishing soup...That's when my moma piped up and said, "You know, it's not just delicious. It makes you feel like it is actually making you healthy while you eat it." That's it exactly!

When I hear someone talk about a food tasting "healthy" I envision something that is nasty tasting, but good for you. Like spirulina. Just the name gets me. I'm a biology teacher and I think in pictures. I have the instant envisionment of a cartoon from our old science book where a Sprirogyra cell (a green algae) was an upright coil dressed like a shady gangster. Why? I can't remember the pun, but the picture stuck with me. No spirulina for me, thanks. 

This soup is healthy is the obvious way that it is filled with garlic and onion and broth, all things to boost immunity and fight off colds. But it feels health-giving in the way that a big bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup feels when you hold the steaming bowl under you nose and breath in the goodness. It is a soup that makes you feel good from your tummy to your bones.

Here is my greatly abbreviated version of the Victoria recipe. Remember how impatient I am? Turns out you can make this amazing soup in about half the time, with half the work. It tastes like it has simmered all day and yet it is super simple and quick.
Have a bowl and live in health!

Garlic Soup
6 servings

2 heads of garlic (a head is the whole white bulb)
Olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups sliced onions (about two medium onions)
1 and 1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 ground red pepper (half this is you do not care for heat)
garnish- olive oil, fresh thyme, or chives, or parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cut the top (the pointed end) off both heads of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap tightly in foil. Roast for about 40-45 minutes. Let cool while preparing the soup.

Chop the onions into thin slices, this just helps them cook quickly and evenly. Put the butter and about a Tbsp olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the onions and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent, approx 10-15 minutes.

Squeeze the garlic pulp out of the cloves into the pan, taking care not to get any paper husk in the pot. Stir in.

Add the broth and increase heat to medium high, bringing the mixture up to a boil. Remove from heat.

Pour part of the boiling mixture into a blender. Take the center cap out of the lid and cover with a towel. In case your eyes flew past that, Take the center cap out of the lid and cover with a towel! If you do not do this step the pressure and heat will build up and the lid can fly off and spray you with hot liquid. Working in batches, puree the soup until it as smooth as you desire. I leave a little bit of texture in mine so it is not so much like a cream soup. 

Return the pureed soup to the pan and place over medium heat. Stir in the cream, salt, pepper, and red pepper.

Bring to a low simmer and taste for seasoning, adjusting as you see fit. Ladle into a bowl and top with a drizzle of olive oil and any of the garnishes you desire. They aren't necessary to the flavor, but the addition of the green makes the bland soup look more appetizing. When you taste it, you won't care if it has garnish or not, it's that yummy!

This can be stored in the fridge for up to a week (Victoria Magazine says so), so you could make this and then have it on a cold and hectic day.

Serve this with loads of crusty bread. Not only is that the perfect compliment, but it helps the servings to go further and seem like a full meal. This can also be served in much smaller servings as a very elegant first course for a dinner party.

Try this soup on a cold day, Dear Reader, and I hope you love it as much as my family does!