How to make a garlic soup

This French garlic soup (velouté) is something you must try at least once in your life; it’s creamy, silky and flavorsome. Surprisingly, the garlic taste is not as strong as you would expect. On top of all this, it’s super healthy. According to some health pundits garlic soup is more potent than antibiotics.

As far as culinary skills go, this is a great recipe to practice with because it uses mayonnaise as a binding agent. This is not a technique you commonly see in recipes. This particular recipe comes from the village of Lautrec regarded as one of the prettiest villages in the south west of France.

Ideally you should try to get your hands on the pink variety of garlic but if this is hard to come by then any purple variety is fine.

Ingredients needed :

For the white chicken stock:

• Approx 1 kg of bones.
• 2 chicken carcass ( chopped in medium size pieces
• 4 chicken wings ( chopped in half)
• 4 chicken necks (chopped in 2)
• 2 liter of water
• 1 medium size carrot (100 grams)
• 1 medium size onion (100 grams)
• 1 small leek, white part only (100 grams)
• 1 celery rib ( 100 grams)
• 1 bouquet garni

To flavor the soup:

• 10 clove of garlic
• A few leaves of fresh sages
• A pinch of Espelette or cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper for the seasoning

For the mayonnaise:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• A pinch of salt and pepper
• 150 ml of sunflower or peanut oil

For the garnish:

• Slices of toasted baguette

 instructions:

1. prepare your mise en place: wash peel and cut all of your vegetables and garlic cloves
2. make your chicken stock (see video linked below)
3. filter the stock and leave to reduce for 10 minutes.
4. cut and blanch the garlic as shown on the video.
5. reduce the garlic in a puree, add it to the stock and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.
6. make the mayonnaise (see the video linked below or text recipe here)
7. add the mayonnaise to the soup and mix gently.
8. leave the soup to simmer for a further 10 minutes (avoiding boiling!)
9. while the soup is simmering, cut and toast the croutons
10. season the soup and serve.

recipe in video:

How to make the chicken stock:

How to make a mayonnaise:

Stephane