44 Garlic Clove Soup

During my lunch hour or on slow days at work I read through food blogs.  One particular blog every other day there is a new post of a recipe that blogger photographed and posts the recipe.  About a week ago this recipe called “44 Garlic Clove Soup” caught my eye and stomach.  I tried to ignore it for at least a week, but I was craving garlic and soup that I couldn’t hold back any longer.

The intimidating part of this recipe wasn’t the 44 cloves of garlic, but the fact that I have never made a soup from scratch before.  Most of my soups are sadly from a can that is warmed up on the stove.  In the past I use to help my mother make Chili or Corn Chowder which was usually just chopping things up and stirring while mother worked her magic.

It took me two trips to Sprouts, one to Farmers Market and another to Mother’s before I had all the ingredients.  Apparently even if I have a list of all the ingredients I still seem to skip over some.

To my surprise the recipe really isn’t that hard to make more time consuming then anything else.  But of course peeling 44 cloves of garlic is going to take anyone some time.

The Result: AMAZING!!! The BEST soup I have ever had. The flavor was wonderful, rich, creamy and flavorful.

Serving Suggestions: Two things here 1) I was afraid that the soup wasn’t going to be enough for dinner with out something else . So I steamed up some purple cauliflower and broccoli just as a side dish.  The freshly steamed vegetables with the garlic soup were wonderful.  I’m sure you could have made some bread to go along with it, but I try not to eat too much bread these days. 2) There weren’t any leftovers.  The recipe serves 4, so it went pretty fast.  For all the work I was hopping to have at least 2 meals out of the soup.  So as daunting as peeling 88 cloves of garlic seems I would do it any ways, because you’ll want more of the soup when you’re done.

Notes About the Recipe: This is not my recipe. I used the recipe from SmittenKitchen (link) and really didn’t make any alterations. Below is the ingredient list with the recipe in my words.

The Recipe:

44-Clove Garlic Soup with Parmesan Cheese

Serves 4 

26 garlic cloves (unpeeled)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

2 ¼ cups sliced onions

1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

18 garlic cloves, peeled

3 ½ cups chick stock or canned low-salt chicken broth

½ cup whipping cream

½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)

4 lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place 26 garlic cloves in a small glass-baking dish. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes. Wait for them to cool then peel or squeeze the garlic to release cloves. Transfer cloves to a small bowl.

Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and thyme and cook until onions are clear-ish, about 6 minutes. Add roasted garlic and 18 raw garlic cloves and cook 3 minutes. Add chicken stock; cover and simmer until garlic is very tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Puree soup in a blend until smooth (do a couple cups at a time).  Add cream and bring to a simmer. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Divide grated cheese among 4 bowls and ladle soup over gently. Squeeze juice of 1 lemon wedge into each bowl, sprinkle a little bit of chopped thyme and serve.