Roasted Garlic & Pumpkin Soup

Roasted Garlic

• 4 heads of garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Soup

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups onions coarsely chopped
• 2 cups carrots, peeled and coarsely diced
• 3 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 can pumpkin puree 
• 1 cup yellow flesh potatoes, peeled and coarsely diced
• 2 tbsp fresh sage coarsely chopped
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup 35% cream 
• Freshly granted nutmeg to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Slice tops off the whole heads of garlic to expose just the tips of the cloves, place on a large sheet of foil and drizzle garlic with olive oil.  Wrap completely and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Once roasted, open package and let cool.
3. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high, add onions, carrots, ginger and chili powder and cook until onions begin to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add to the pot the pumpkin, potatoes, sage and chicken stock.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and let cook uncovered until the potatoes are very tender, about 35 minutes.
5. While soup is cooking remove all the garlic from its skin and add to pot along with any residual oil.
6. Once soup is cooked, let cool slightly and puree with a hand blender or in a stand-up blender.
7. Once soup is pureed, add cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper to tase, and warm through.  Garnish with extra sage leaves, if desired.

Rachel's Thoughts: I added only half of the amount of stock (due to pot size) with the intention of adding it in at the end but decided that I likely the soup super dense and opted to leave it out.

Source: LCBO Magazine (Autumn 2011)