Wild Garlic Soup, tasty & pretty
This recipe for Wild Garlic Soup is from Darina Allen’s – Ballymaloe Cookery Course. The only changes I’ve made is to blend the soup before adding the chopped tender leaves, and adding flowers.
It’s handy for me to make wild garlic dishes as it grows wild just a few feet from my door. I have only two recipes at the moment featuring wild garlic. I’ll have to change that.
Wild garlic is in season in Ireland from about early March till the end of May. In March you will usually see the young green leaves. They would work great in this soup by themselves. I love the flowers though. They are so pretty and they have slightly peppery chive-like taste that the leaves don’t seem to have.
I first time I made this soup was at the end of May. That should be a little too late to find nice tender young leaves. But I find that while it’s still growing you will find tender leaves if you look for them. But I’d probably recommend getting your wild garlic in April, if you can. Although, everything depends on the weather really.
Wild Garlic Soup
Yield: Serves 4
Suitable for: Gluten-free diet
Ingredients:
- 35g butter
- 275g potatoes (2 medium-sized), peeled & diced into 1cm pieces
- 2 small-medium onions, peeled & chopped
- 2 leeks, topped, tailed & sliced
- 1 litre stock, chicken or vegetable
- salt & freshly ground pepper
- ~150g young wild garlic leaves, plus flowers
- 150ml fresh cream
Instructions:
Prepare the wild garlic
Place the wild in a sieve. Rinse and drain well. Pick out the tender leaves from any tougher stems. Roughly chop up the stems and place them in a food mixer along with half the flower heads. Reserve at least 4 flower heads to use as a garnish. Mix until they are chopped small.Make the soup
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. When it has melted add the potatoes, onions and leeks, tossing them in the butter until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with a paper lid, or old butter wrapper, then cover the pan and leave to cook until vegetables are soft but not coloured - about 10 minutes. Discard the paper lid, add the stock and bring to the boil. Boil until vegetables are cooked. Reduce heat. Use a stick blender to blend till smooth. Add in the chopped tender wild garlic leaves and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes. Take off the heat and stir in the cream. Taste and season to your taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.Garnish with flowers
Use the reserved flower heads as a garnish.
Enjoy!
