Garlic Soup

I posted this link on facebook and I got a lot of positive feedback. It sounded so intriguing, that I had to give it a go. 

Promises, promises. 

I really like garlic, and I really like ginger. So far, I love this recipe. I tried it out yesterday. I probably should have done it another day. TC and I had spent all day working in the yard, and I was exhausted by the time I realized that this was going to take a couple hours to make. I was plumb tuckered by the end of all this, and a nice hot cup of soup sounded so good. 

Ingredients:
26 cloves Garlic, raw and unpeeled
2 tbsp Butter or Olive Oil for sauteing 
1/2 tsp Cayenne Powder
1/2 c. Fresh Ginger
2 1/4 c. Onion, Chopped or Sliced
1 1/2 tsp Fresh Thyme
26 cloves Garlic, raw and peeled
1/2 c. Coconut Milk
3 1/2 c. Vegetable Broth

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Toss unpeeled garlic in olive oil and salt and wrap in tinfoil. Place in baking dish and roast for about 35 minutes (or until garlic is browned and tender)
• While waiting for the garlic to bake, I would spend that time peeling the rest of the garlic and grating the ginger.
• When the roasted garlic is done, take it out of the oven and wait for it to cool. When it has cooled, squeeze the garlic out of it's shells. 
• Melt butter, or use olive oil, to saute the onions, ginger, thyme, and cayenne pepper
• When the onions are fully sauteed, add the garlic... all of it. Cook for 3 minutes. 
• Add broth, cover, and simmer until the raw garlic is tender (about 20 minutes)
• In batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor (be aware to use something that can handle the heat)
• Return the soup to the saucepan and add coconut milk. 
• Simmer. 
• Season to taste.

I have this little thingy that is supposed to make it easier to peel garlic. It works awesomely about half the time. 

This is after the garlic was roasted. I just want to eat it with a spoon. 

TC was a total champ and grated the ginger. 

Blending it all up... so noisy. 

After garlic has been rolled, it should look like this without effort. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. 

I put the garlic in to roast for about 45 minutes, and it burned, but was still salvageable. 

I doubled the recipe because I had the garlic to do so. So, in this pot, there are about 100 cloves of garlic. 

Oh my goodness, it looks so rich and creamy!

Notes:
I got the recipe from Real Farmacy
I doubled the recipe so I could freeze some for later when one of us gets sick. 

The ginger is stringy. I don't know if it's just my blender, but even after I blended it all together, I found little stringy bits as we were eating it. 

This, surprisingly, didn't taste too garlicky. 

When TC wants soup, he wants stew. When I want soup, I want broth. So, this wasn't exactly his type of soup. 

Review:
All in all, this took a couple hours to make. If you have the time (or the extra hands to help you peel garlic), I say go for it!

As a brothy soup, I really loved it. It also would be good with potatoes or tofu. I give it a 4.5 

As a stew, TC found it completely lacking. Without chunky delicious bits, TC gave it a 3. Sad day.

Assuming you use olive oil instead of butter, this recipe is totally vegan, gluten free, paleo, and vegetarian. 

Total Score:
4

I had some leftover french fries from Ruggles (if you can't have certain foods like dairy, wheat, meat, etc, and you're in Houston, check this place out. They have three locations.)  So, I poured the soup over the fries. It was quite tasty!