Roasted garlic
There are very few things more delicious than roasted garlic, if you ask me! The nutty aromatic toasty flavors of the golden, soft, dreamy roasted garlic cloves is simply irresistible to me. Well now. Imagine squeezing a whole head of these tasty treats to a pot of soup? Heaven!!! Roasted garlic noodle soup is what we’re eating whenever I’m craving for something warming and comforting, but don’t feel like cooking at all. Slurping a big bowl of this soup makes everything better!
Roasted garlic soup with noodles and roasty toasty things = a quick soup fix for all the garlic lovers out there!
Roasted garlic soup
I wonder what comes to your mind when I say roasted garlic soup? I’d imagine it’s not what you see in the photos of this blog post. At least for me, a roasted garlic soup is a velvety pureed garlic soup, perhaps served with some garlic croutons! That’s also what I find when doing an online search for a roasted garlic soup. 99/100 of the images are of a blended creamy bowl of garlic goodness! (Goodness, I’m really craving for that kind of garlic soup now…) But I promise this soup is just as delicious, it’s just entirely different 😀 Well, apart from the huge amount of roasted garlic that is. In any case: If you’re a fan of roasted garlic, I think you’ll like this soup too!
Garlic broth
The origin of this soup is me craving for a cup of the garlic broth I posted about last year, but being too lazy to start making it. Instead I just blended some roasted garlic with veggie stock from a cube and threw in some soba noodles. The quick fix turned out to be so delicious, that we’ve been eating this roasted garlic noodle soup ever since!
I mainly make this soup with veggie stock, but sometimes I’ve also been using kombu dashi. A dash of miso (or garlic miso!) deepens the flavor even more, without really adding up to the level of skills or effort required here. All you really need to do is to roast some things, heat up some broth and cook some noodles. Mash the roasted garlic to the broth and assemble! If I’m craving for even more garlic, I grate in a raw clove of garlic and/or mash in a few cloves of black garlic. And if you have garlic confit around, it’s not even necessary to turn on the oven. Just mix the confit garlic in with the broth of your choice and you’re ready to go!
The recipe for this fusion style garlic broth is here!
Roasted toasted tasty things
If I’m going to heat the oven, I always roast more than just the garlic. My go to choices are onions, mushrooms and tomatoes! But, often I throw in some veggie sausage or cold smoked tofu too. As these things roast, their flavor intensifies and they are just heavenly mixed in to this soup. I especially love how the shriveled up button mushrooms plump up as they sit in their hot garlic bath… They are like mini sponges, drinking in all the delicious broth!
Whilst the oven is doing its things, I heat up the broth I’m using and cook the noodles of my choice. Usually I go for Japanese soba or udon noodles, but any noodles work here, including all types of pasta! After that it’s just a matter of assembly! Ta da – a bowl of roasted garlic soup with noodles is ready to be slurped!
Roasted garlic noodle soup
I hope my roasted garlic soup is as comforting and tasty to you as it is to me! The good thing is, that this recipe is really very adjustable. You can use a broth of your preference. Choose the noodles you like. Season to taste, according to your taste. And even if I love button mushrooms in my soup, you can obviously throw in whatever you like! But if you are going to leave out the roasted garlic from the soup, then you’re in the wrong place here, pal!
Roasted garlic soup with noodles
Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic
- 250 g small plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
- 2 medium sized red onions (or 4-5 shallots, depending on their size)
- 200 g button mushrooms
- 2-3 tbsp neutral tasting vegetable oil
- salt & freshly cracked black pepper (to taste)
- 1¼ l veggie stock / kombu dashi
- soy sauce / smoked soy sauce (to taste)
- toasted sesame oil (to taste)
- shichimi togarashi or chinese five spice (to taste)
- 2-4 cloves of black garlic (optional)
- 1 raw clove of garlic (optional)
- 4 portions soba / udon noodles (or pasta of your choice)
- 300 g plant based sausage / cold smoked tofu (optional)
To serve:
- 1 green part of a green onion / scallion (optional)
- 1-2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
- chili flakes, to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oven up to 200°C. Peel and chop the onions to 4-6 segments. Cut the head of garlic in half width wise. Chop the mushrooms in half/quarters depending on the size and half the tomatoes (lengthwise). If you're using cold smoked tofu or plant based sausage, cube it into bite sized portions.
- Layer the aforementioned ingredients to a large casserole. I like to put the tomato and garlic cut size up. Drizzle some vegetable oil on top (especially on the garlic halves!) and season to taste with some salt and black pepper.
- Put the dish in the oven on the middle rack, and allow everything to roast for about 15 minutes. Check the garlic every five minutes after that and remove once it's roasted to a golden and fully soft. If the garlic starts to get too much color before it's soft, flip the pieces upside down so that the cut sides are facing down. Keep roasting until the garlic is fully soft, then remove the garlic so you won't risk burning it (roasted garlic is delicious, burnt garlic is bitter).
- Once you've removed the garlic, you can put the dish on the top rack and even turn on the broiler/grill settings to get everything nicely roasted - unless it already is, in which case just take everything out. You can roast things as much as you like, just make sure nothing burns!
- While the things are roasting in the oven, cook the noodles according to the package instructions and rinse them with cold water. Make sure you strain the noodles well. Heat up the stock/broth of your preference and season to taste with soy sauce (I often use smoked soy sauce). If you want an added punch of raw garlic, grate one clove into the pot and allow the broth to come to boil.
- Remove from the stove and season to taste with for example 1-2 tsp of japanese shichimi togarashi or chinese five spice. I also like to add in a few dashes of toasted sesame oil. If I'm adding in black garlic, I mash it against the cutting board along with half of the roasted garlic cloves, before mixing in to the broth.
Assembly:
- Divide the noodles into 4 bowls. Ladle in the broth (mix well right before serving!) to the bowls. Squeeze the remaining garlic cloves out of their skins and divide all the roasted things into the bowls.
- I like to serve this soup with some toasted sesame seeds, or a little chili flakes, or some scallion greens, but you could also serve this with some fresh chives or cilantro!
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