Garlic soup is a very tasty way to take advantage of the health benefits of garlic. It’s SO much better than taking a garlic pill! To make it even healthier, add some sauteed mushrooms to the finish soup. See the Mushroom Garlic Soup Recipe.
On one of our trips to New Orleans, Bobby and I ate at Bayona, owned by Chef Susan Spicer. I had a rabbit dish that was absolutely delicious as were all of the other meals that were eaten at our table that night. So you can imagine how excited I got when one of my cooking shows did a short segment on Bayona’s Garlic Soup. I immediately looked it up on the internet and bookmarked it to make one day. Well, that day has come.
But – as some of you may already know – I’m not very good at following a recipe, so the soup I ended up with probably tastes different from Bayona’s Garlic Soup. How different? I have no idea and may never know because this soup was so good that I don’t think I could make it any other way.
Garlic Soup Recipe
Inspired by Bayona’s Garlic Soup @ La Belle Cuisine (In addition to several changes, I cut the recipe in half)
Serves: 4
Prep and Cook Time: 1 hour (however, like any soup – making it a day ahead of time will let the flavors meld)
Ingredients
1Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 large heads of garlic, cloves peeled and chopped
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 qt. homemade chicken broth or canned chicken broth
1 herb bundle of 5 parsley stems, 4 sprigs fresh thyme (tie together with string)
¼ tsp. salt or to taste
½ cup half and half
1/4 tsp. fresh-ground white pepper
Chopped fresh parsley for topping
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the oil and butter over low to medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and beginning to turn brown, about 25 minutes.
- Add the apple and continue to cook, covered, for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the stock and herb bundle. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer about 15 minutes.
- Remove the herbs. Puree the soup with an immersion blender or regular blender.
- Add pepper and salt to taste. Add the half and half and bring back to a simmer, stirring. Remove from heat.
- Serve topped with chopped parsley.
Kitchen Notes
What did I change?
- Omitted the bread. It called for 1/2 loaf French bread in the soup, probably for consistency – I guess. The consistency of this soup was perfect without it.
- Added the apple.
- Cut way back on the salt.
- Cut back on the amount of half and half.
- Used white pepper instead of black pepper – that does make a difference to me.
- Added the parsley which really enhanced the flavors.
We had this soup the night I made it and then again a couple of days later. It was very good the first night but great the second night. Therefore, I would suggest making it a day ahead of time.
I also had made an herb bread the same day I made the soup, so guess what we ate with the soup. To go with the leftover soup I made grilled cheese sandwiches with the leftover herb bread. I will definitely be doing that again!
Bobby’s comment – “I could eat this soup once a week.”
This Garlic Soup recipe has been shared with the following blog hops. Click on the links and check out a lot of great recipes! Friday Potluck, Sunday Night Soup Night, Katherine Martinelli’s Valentine Blog Hop, Hearth and Soul, Gluten-Free Wednesday, Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbits, Fat Tuesday, Keep It Real Thursday, Allergy-Free Wednesday, Bizzy’s Recipe Box, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Made With Love Monday
Featured on
Sunday Night Soup Night at Easy Natural Food.
Gluten-Free Wednesday at The Gluten-Free Homemaker (March 2012)
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Roasted Garlic and Garlic Infused Oil
Two whole heads of garlic!? It must be one great soup!
What a great soup for garlic lovers!
I never had a garlic soup and I think I should change that soon-
thank you for this great recipe!
Wow, never heard about garlic soup, but here in Piedmont we have a typical recipe that involves a loooot of garlic
I’d love to try it!
I think I saw a garlic soup recipe last year and I’ve been meaning to try it ever since – thanks for the reminder, and yours looks so good! I learned a fabulous tip recently for when your cooking with lots of garlic – if you place the whole bulb (or bulbs in this case) in cold water and bring to almost boiling point then you can just pull back all the skin so easily and the cloves literally just slide out of the skin too! If the garlic was clean then in your case you could probably heat them in the stock to maximise the flavour!
Lovely soup – definitely something for a friday night though I think – wouldn’t want to inflict my breath on people after this, although cooked garlic is never too strong actually
Thanks for the method on peeling a head of garlic!
This really intrigues me. I’ve never had garlic soup before. Bookmarking this for later!!
PS I love rabbit too!
MJ…this soup looks SO GOOD! What a perfect way to stave off a cold! And the bread in the background looks perfect for dipping! I’m looking forward to trying this!
Ooo this sounds GOOD! I love garlic I could never have too much. And I just might be able to execute it!
I’m excited to give this a try!
I hope you have a good start to your week!
Beautiful shot of the soup and I love the settings. Have a great week to you, MJ!
This does sound delicious, garlic is an all time favorite of mine. I have made a garlic soup but it had a clear broth. The addition of the apple is interesting too. Going to give this a try. Thanks!
Looks delish! Love the apple addition. It’s cold and snowy up here … perfect soup weather. Can’t wait to try it.
Absolutely LOVE! Hope you are well!
Wow – the soup is AMAZING! I have to say – as soon as I started reading it – I said, aloud, “Apple!” The idea of adding the apple was GENIUS!
this soup looks great – you know I love ALL garlic recipes!! Can’t wait to try and btw I love your section “kitchen notes” – great idea!
I love garlic soup, MJ…I could have it everyday! Haven’t tried it with apple though…but it sounds good!
Wow! I have all the ingredients. May need to make this soon as I’m battling a nasty cold! Garlic sounds so good!
You added apples! I love that! Soup looks absolutely delish!
Looks so delicious! I have been wanting to make garlic soup with the egg in it.. mmmm
The egg certainly sounds interesting!
Hehehe, garlic is a very subjective ingredient to me; sometimes I like it and sometimes I just don’t, because of its smell
I definitely didn’t expect to see an apple in the ingredients. How interesting! I’ve never had garlic soup but your photos and description sounds awesome… I want to try it!
Oh, wow..I could eat (or drink..in a mug) this soup every day too! I love that you added an apple to add some sweetness to the garlic and onions. This soup is now on my Fall and Winter menu..maybe even a Thanksgiving starter..in shot glasses with a slice of apple on the rims!
That said, I hope you try the pumpkin gnocchi and creamy mushrooms..it was so good I ate it for every meal yesterday. Feeling bloated, but so worth it! LOL
So I’m fascinated by the apple and see that that’s something you changed. Why did you add the apple? Texture, filler, flavor?
And that amount of garlic sounds delicious (I’m a garlic fanatic). I’m definitely going to need to give this recipe a shot.
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever made garlic soup. I certainly add garlic to soup but have not used it as the starring feature… that’s shameful
What a beautiful soup MJ – I’m particularly smitten with the apple in this warm bowl as well as the fresh parsley… so flavourful! Yum – I think I must make this one!
hey mj! thanks for visiting my blog and i hope you can make something using achuete/annatto seeds soon! keep me posted!
i’m definitely doing this soup soon. you had me at garlic. hahaha cheers!
I need this soup now! I’m sick so this soup could not only be comforting, but help me too. I love the use of an apple too… great idea. Now if you only had delivery service.
Mmm… Garlic breath, how I love thee… Two heads of garlic is right up my alley. Beautiful soup – And I simply adore the addition of an apple!
What a perfect meal with the herb bread. I would so want to be invited over for that warm and comfy meal! Thanks for sharing, this recipe looks so tasty. I love garlic!
I really like the addition of apple, perfect garlic soup. very true I’d rather have a huge bowl of garlic soup than take a pill, lol
Love this soup..apples in it is unusual!
I’ve never heard of garlic soup, but what a great idea! I’m amazed at how creamy it looks too. Pinned it! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with Sunday Night Soup Night! I’ll be hosting weekly through fall and winter, so I’d love to see you again with your next soup/stock/chowder recipe.
I just tweeted this soup as one of my favorites from Sunday Night Soup Night! Thanks for linking up and hope to see you again soon
Thanks Debbi!
I love garlic and have had garlic soup but never made it – delicious! Thanks for linking up to my v-day blog hop!
Yum! I pinned this to try. I’ve never had it before but I’ve heard of it.
apple and garlic are always a good idea. Heck! Garlic is always a good idea in and of itself! As someone who regularly goes through 2 heads of garlic a week (i’m lucky i have the friends i do!), i approve
I was craving garlic soup the other day, even though I had never had it. Out of the blue, I thought a creamy garlic soup sounds good. I’m so glad you’ve done the work so I don’t have to create a recipe.
I’ve never had garlic soup, but it sounds delicious. I saw it yesterday and linked to it on Facebook. It sounded like just the thing I would enjoy, but I haven’t had a chance to make it.
This sounds like a fabulous soup! I feel like making it tomorrow for lunch. I probably can use milk instead of half and half, right?
Absolutely you can use milk instead of half and half. The dairy is just used as a binder so 1/4 cup would probably work so it doesn’t get too thin. Please let me know how you like it! We love it! Hope you’re having a great evening!
I just made this soup. At the last moment I discovered that I did not have yellow onions, so I had to use dried ones and an extra apple. And I used 1/2 cup of milk, because it was a little thick, and I wanted it to look lighter, like yours
. It was really tasty and perfect for a cool day like today! Thank you so much, MJ!
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I really love your site
The way you make those substitutions you don’t sound like a rookie to me! Great going! Thanks SO MUCH for letting me know how you liked it and your substitutions! This kind of information helps us all. Thank you also for the kind comments about my site! It does my heart good!
I look forward to continuing to cook with you!
I am a garlic lover. I like the combination og garlic and apple. I’ll definitely try it. Thanks.
This looks really great! I will definitely give it a try.
I really need to try this soup, MJ – the combination of garlic with fennel and apple sounds amazing and so unique. Plus, all the wonderful benefits of garlic. I’m also in a very soupy mood this week after being sick for days… Thanks so much for sharing…
Oh wow, garlic soup – amazing!
My boyfriend is obsessed with garlic, he absolutely loves it (when it comes to kissing time – lucky me) I will have to cook this – it looks delicious and he will adore it!
Love your blog, the recipes are so fool proof and I love your writing