#also garlic

So, over the last week or so, we appear to have jumped from early fall straight into winter - we had our first snow (didn't stick) earlier in the week, and it's regularly below freezing now.  

As such, we are now full into food that will keep me warm/prevent me from getting sick season.  And baby, this soup fits that bill perfectly.  The main ingredient of this soup? Garlic.  Garlic garlic and more garlic.  

This is normally a recipe for a 44 clove soup.  Last night I roasted three heads' worth of garlic, and threw in 3 heads' worth of unpeeled garlic.  I don't have an exact count on how many cloves that was, but I'm willing to bet it was significantly more than 44. :P  As such, this is now being called Garlic Punch Soup.

Garlic Punch Soup Lasts 3.5 lunches as main (.5 was as a side)

Ingredients

3 heads of garlic, split into cloves, but unpeeled

appx 2 T olive oil

salt and pepper

3 heads of garlic, split into cloves and peeled

2 T butter

half a large onion, diced

1.5 t fresh thyme (I used half of this bc I had ground thyme on hand)

3.5 c chicken stock

.5 c heavy whipping cream

.5 c grated Parmesan

Take a baking dish and your 3 heads worth of unpeeled garlic cloves, and spread them across the bottom of the dish, drizzling with the olive oil and salt and pepper.  Be sure you have pretty decent sized cloves for this; too small, and they can burn.  Heat your oven to 350 (mine was at 325, you know why), cover your dish, and roast your garlic for about 45 minutes, until golden brown. While your garlic roasts, peel the other three heads' worth of garlic, and dice your onions.  Once they're cooled, squeeze the cloves between your fingertips to release the tender cloves.

Melt your butter in the pot over medium high heat, and as soon as it's melted, add your onions and thyme. Cook until your onions are soft and translucent in the butter, about six minutes.  Then add both your roasted and raw garlic, and cook another three minutes.

Pour in your chicken stock, cover the pot, and bring to a simmer and let simmer for 20 minutes, until the garlic is fork tender.  In two batches, pour your soup into a blender, and puree (I went from low to high) until smooth.  And seriously, do it in batches, otherwise you're going to have hot soup all over the kitchen, and that's just not fun.

Once your soup has been pureed, add it back to the pot, and add your heavy whipping cream, bringing back to a simmer.  Once back at a simmer, add your parmesan in, and remove from the heat, stirring it in.