Soup’s On! Garlic Bread Soup with Garlic Bread Leaves

It’s Friday, so you know what that means….soup time! This week, I’ve got a little something special for you!

I got an e-mail last week that the food blogging community Foodbuzz is having a contest with Nature’s Pride bread. They are searching for Official Bread Ambassadors for this year’s Foodbuzz festival in San Francisco. Um…Official Bread Ambassador?! I can’t think of a better title for myself, especially since I’ve embraced my love for all things carby and doughy! So I stepped up to the challenge: create a recipe using Nature’s Pride bread. Any recipe you like. That’s all.

It should come as no surprise that I immediately wanted to make a healthy and delicious soup with it. With that, I was off and running. I wish I had a montage of me grocery shopping/sobbing whilst chopping piles of onions/jumping as soup exploded all over the kitchen/drinking wine in frustration…but you’ll just have to use your imagination. Suffice to say, eventually it all came together.

Bread. Garlic. Olive oil. Wine. Cheese. Soup. Don’t mind if I do!

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

• One loaf Nature’s Pride Country White bread
• 3 small heads of garlic, plus an extra clove
• 2 tbsp olive oil plus 2 tsp
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups white onion, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 5 cups no-sodium chicken broth
• ½ cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• Pinch crushed red pepper
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• Mini leaf cookie cutters

Method

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the tops off the heads of garlic, leaving the skins on. Set them on a piece of foil and drizzle with 2 tsp olive oil. Top with 2 bay leaves and wrap with foil. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

If you’re intimidated by bay leaves, don’t be! They are really easy to find in the spice section at any grocery store and aren’t wildly expensive. But they add amazing fragrance to soups and baked dishes and are just good to have on hand.

At this point in the recipe, the smell of garlic will be incredible. Get excited…you’re only halfway there! It only gets better.

While the garlic is roasting, whip out the secret ingredient: Nature’s Pride bread!

I don’t typically buy white bread, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it. The Nature’s Pride Country White does not disappoint. It’s free of artificial ingredients and preservatives, and it has that chewy, fluffy texture that makes white bread so damn good. It also smells and tastes incredibly fresh. My mom bought more after declaring it “perfect for grilled cheese.” I concur.

Remove the heels and three slices of bread and use a serrated knife to cut it into cubes. You want about 2 cups of cubes.

Full disclosure: I was pretty much eating every other cube as I was doing this. No butter. Just white bread, straight up.  It’s that good. As I was doing it, I was sending a huge “Suck it” to Dr. Atkins and all his little friends, and it felt great.

When the garlic is done roasting, remove it from the oven and let it cool. Open the foil packet, trash the bay leaves, and grasp each garlic bulb at the base with a potholder. Turn, squeeze gently, and the roasted garlic cloves will slide right out!

In a large pot, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and the add onions and celery; cook until the onions are soft and translucent.

Mince the additional clove of raw garlic and add it, along with the roasted garlic, to the celery and onion mixture; cook for another two minutes.

At this point, you’re going to want to get out the wine. (Well you probably wanted to get it out sooner, so by now, let’s just hope you left enough in the bottle for the actual soup.) If you’ve never cooked with wine, this is a great time to start! It adds so much flavor and sophistication to a dish.

You shouldn’t cook with any wine you wouldn’t drink. Peace out cheap “cooking wine!” However, you don’t need anything super fancy. For this recipe, I went with Oops sauvignon blanc a “cheeky little white.” Why did I choose Oops? Well, the label says, “Some mistakes were meant to happen.” Oh, mistakes and wine? Hmmm, I wouldn’t know anything about that.

Add the wine, chicken broth, bread, red pepper, 1 tsp salt, and pepper to the pot. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and let it simmer for 40 minutes.

While the soup simmers, it’s time to turn on some good music (I went with the Waldeck album, “Ballroom Stories” which is just perfect when you’re elbow deep in good, real food), pour another glass of wine for yourself, and make the garlic bread leaves!

Toast the rest of the loaf of bread. Don’t char it, but the crispier it is, the easier it is to cut shapes out of it.

Get your cookie cutters!

God…I just love fall!! I found these cuties at Wal-Mart; if you can’t find mini leaves, you can always just cut the toasted bread into cubes. Then you’ll have what’s known in many cultures as, um, croutons.

But since this is such a good autumn soup, let’s use the seasonal cookie cutters, k?

Combine 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, and a little black pepper.

Stir until it forms a paste, and then toss the mixture with the leaves so they are evenly coated.

I tossed them with my hands, and the delicious smell of bread, garlic and olive oil was almost too much for me to bear. That, plus the wine and the tunes, and, well….I was in a “French women don’t get fat” frenzy.

Spread the leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Toss to stir halfway through. When they are done they should be very crunchy.

When it’s time, check the soup! When I took the lid off the pot and was hit with the scent of not just roasted garlic but also white wine, I died of happiness.

Use an immersion blender or transfer the soup to a blender to puree until it’s smooth.

Whisk in the heavy cream and the Parmesan cheese.

Serve the soup topped with the garlic bread leaves.

All I can really say is…multiple foodgasms.

The soup is creamy and a little spicy, and the leaves give it an extra kick of garlic, along with some crunch. The olive oil, cheese, and cream make it seem terribly indulgent, but it’s actually pretty low in calories. It’s light, so you won’t have to unbutton your jeans, but it’s also extremely satisfying.

I know I get excited about, well, everything, but I have to say…I am so proud of this recipe! The ingredients are simple whole foods, but they come together to make something really special. I can’t wait to make this for my friends and serve it with a lot of Oops! I’m not sure if it’s enough to get me named an Official Bread Ambassador, but it’s enough to make me feel healthy, carb-happy, and tres, tres chic.

Tagged as: bread, carbs, contests, foodgasm, garlic, Healthy Cooking, healthy fats, healthy recipes, Nature's Pride, olive oil, soup