Garlic Soup
4 servings

No, you won’t need breath mints! The flavor of garlic is subtle in this absolutely scrumptious soup that takes off the winter chill.

This Spanish-influenced New Mexican recipe is from Cocina de la Familia, a very good cookbook by Marilyn Tausend. It is quick, inexpensive and easy to make. The author suggests serving the soup with dry sherry or red wine, French bread, and Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts (see last week’s blog post).

By the way, if you really love garlic and want to splurge sometime, try The Stinking Rose, a garlic restaurant with locations in San Francisco and Beverly Hills. The Stinking Rose has dishes such as 40-clove garlic chicken and entire heads of roasted garlic. It’s a fun place to go for a special occasion, like a birthday.

Buen provecho! Thanks for visiting my blog!

2–4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, peeled
4 slices French bread, evenly sliced 1/4 inch thick
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 eggs
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
red chili flakes

In a pot or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Sauté garlic cloves until golden (about 3 to 4 minutes). Remove from the oil and set aside.

In the same pot, toast the bread in the olive oil until golden brown (about 30 seconds each side). The bread acts like a sponge that soaks up the oil, so add about a tablespoon more of olive oil after you toast each slice. Place bread on a plate covered with a paper towel, and set aside.

Stray crumbs may burn to a crisp while you’re toasting the bread. Either remove the burnt crumbs with tongs, or let the pot cool and wipe it clean before proceeding.

Slowly add 3 cups of the broth to the pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pureé the garlic cloves and 1 cup of chicken broth in a blender until smooth, and add to the pot. Heat the broth until simmering; then cover and cook on a low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

Break each egg into four separate dishes. Remove the pot from the heat; then add each egg to the soup. Return the pot to the heat, and ladle some broth over the eggs. Cover the pot and poach the eggs for about 2 or 3 minutes. (You can also scramble the eggs like I did; then add them to the pot all at once. The soup is absolutely delicious this way.)

Place a slice of toast at the bottom of 4 bowls, and add an egg to each bowl. Ladle in the broth, and garnish with sliced green onions and chili flakes.