Poached Garlic Soup Recipe

Poached Garlic Soup is a definite ten rating!  Your guests will never believe how much garlic there is in this soup.

After the garlic has been cooked slowly, it loses its harsh rawness and becomes delicate and refined.  It is hard to say exactly how or at what stage this happens – it is one of those mysteries which makes cooking so fascinating!

This will become one of your favorite soup recipes.  I have served this outstanding Poached Garlic Soup with many of my Dinner Party Menus.

 

Poached Garlic Soup

 

 

Please check out my Veal Scaloppine Piccata dinner menu, Lamb Roast with Port Wine Sauce dinner menu, and Truffle Dinner which includes this wonderful Poached Garlic Soup.

 

 

Poached Garlic Soup Recipe:
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
50 mins
Total Time
1 hr 20 mins
 
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Poached Garlic Soup Recipe
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
Poached Garlic Soup:
  • 30 cloves garlic, peeled*
  • 7 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock (homemade or good-quality store bought), divided**
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup white onion, chopped
  • 8 small new potatoes, peeled, diced, and reserved in cold water
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • Coarse salt and freshly-cracked pepper to taste
  • Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Toasted Garlic-Butter Bread:
Instructions
Poached Garlic Soup Instructions:
  1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine garlic cloves and 3 cups of vegetable or chicken broth; bring to a boil and poach 15 minutes or until soft.  Remove garlic cloves to a small bowl and mash with a fork; set aside for use in make Toasted Garlic-Butter Bread.

  2. Cook and reduce chicken broth to a glaze; remove from heat and set aside.  Note: Glazes are concentrated reductions of stock that can be used to fortify sauces.

  3. Prepare Toasted Garlic-Butter Bread (see below); cover with plastic wrap until ready to serve.

  4. In a large soup pot over low heat, melt butter.  Add onion and saute until soft.  Drain the water from the potatoes; stir the potatoes into the butter and onion mixture.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add remaining 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth. Increase heat to medium-high; simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes or until the potatoes are softened.  Remove from heat and let cool 10 to 15 minutes.

  5. In a food processor or blender, puree soup; return to soup pot.  Add garlic glaze; stir until well blended.

  6. The soup can be made 1 to 2 days in advance up until this stage.  Refrigerate until ready to finish.

  7. When ready to serve:  Stir in heavy cream, milk, salt, and pepper; cook, over low heat, another 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Serve in soup bowls and garnish with parmesan cheese.  Serve with Toasted Garlic-Butter Bread.

  8. Makes 6 servings.

Toasted Garlic-Butter Bread Instructions:
  1. Preheat broiler.  

  2. In a small bowl, combine butter and mashed garlic cloves; mash until well blended.  Spread garlic mixture evenly over the top of the bread slices.

  3. When ready to serve, broil bread for a few seconds or until top is lightly browned and bubbly.

Recipe Notes

*  When selecting garlic, it should be big, plump and firm, tight silky skins with its paper-like covering intact, not spongy, soft, or shriveled.  Also remember that a single bulb of garlic usually contains between ten and twenty individual cloves of garlic.  The individual cloves are covered with a fine pinkish/purple skin, and the head of cloves is then covered with white papery outer skin.

**  Learn how easy it is to make your own homemade Chicken Stock - Basic Chicken Stock.

 

Comments and Reviews

5 Responses to “Poached Garlic Soup Recipe”

  1. Patricia Sliwa

    This is one of my favorite soups! I’ve made it many times and have shared it with friends and family. I have some questions that I’ve been wanting to ask. First, Is it ok to use regular size red potatoes instead of baby reds? Secondly, how much should the chicken broth be reduced to until it becomes a glaze? I use to reduce it to about 1/2 cup. I just made a double batch although I prepared two separate pots, each with 30 cloves of garlic and reduced each because I was not sure how much I should reduce a double amount of liquid. Would it just be stronger if I had done the reduction with the double amount of liquid? I used large red potatoes with this last pot and I’m not sure if that affected the outcome of this soup. I would definitely appreciate replies and/or direction! Thank you, Pattie

    Reply
    • Linda Stradley

      1. You may use any type of potatoes that you want or are available when making this soup.

      2. A reduction is the result of boiling or cooking down a liquid until it reduces to the consistency of a sauce. If you are looking for a cup of sauce, start with two cups of stock. Basically you are going to reduce whatever liquid you are using in half. If you think the sauce should be thicker, continue cooking it down until it reaches your desired consistency.

      3. A glaze happens when reduce braising liquid and pan drippings into a thick, spoon-coating sauce. A reduced-liquid glaze can be as thin or as thick as you want it to be, according to how long you cook it. Pay attention when making a reduction, because a glaze can burn if you boil it down too fast or too far.

      Reply
  2. Patricia Sliwa

    Hello again, it’s Pattie the “nervous cook” as I refer to myself. I am making this soup again, rather a little late for winter, don’t you think?! One more question: I am doubling this soup recipe and therefore, I used 60 cloves of garlic, 1 cup of butter and chopped white onions and doubled the potatoes. Is this ok? It seemed like a lot of butter, but I thought this sounded reasonable. Any suggestions to do it any other way? Thanks again! Pattie

    Reply
    • Linda Stradley

      I have made this Poached Garlic Soup many times and it always turns out excellent and my guests love it. Let us know how your version turns out. – Linda Stradley

      Reply
  3. Pattie

    What would 8 small new red potatoes weigh in pounds? I plan on using some larger reds. 8 small potatoes doesn’t sound like a lot? Thank you!

    Reply

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