Cream of Garlic and Onion Soup

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This is cream of garlic and onion soup a great winter soup. A true taste of France. Wholesome and very tasty. Of course, you’ve got to like garlic and onions but, assuming you do, this is a winner.

Just imagine a French farmhouse kitchen with all of the family going about their daily activities. Some out to work, some of the kids may be at school. They all come in from the cold at different times but you have this wonderful hot pot of garlic and onion soup ready to warm them up. Some cheese and chive scones too. Just for dipping into the soup! Yum!!

I use shallots instead of onions, but this is purely a personal taste preference. Either will do. Same with the stock. You can use chicken or vegetable stock. I generally use vegetable but today I used chicken simply because I ran out of vegetable stock. This soup is very versatile. It really is up to you.

Let’s make it…

1. Gather all of the ingredients together

The measurements for the ingredients are in the printable recipe below but apart from the garlic, onions and stock, all you need for this soup is some celery, saffron, bay leaf, lemon juice, butter and cream. Oh, and a touch of dry sherry and 3 tablespoons of risotto rice, to help with the thickening. Pretty simple really.

For preparation just chop roughly the garlic, onions and celery. No need to worry about the garlic clove skins. You’ll pass the soup through a sieve later so just leave these on for added flavour.

Finally, make sure you soak the saffron threads for at least 10 minutes before adding to the soup. And keep the water. This will also add to the soup’s flavour.

2. Prepare and cook the base soup

To prepare the soup, first, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the roughly chopped shallots and the bay leaf and sweat off for 2-3 minutes. Do not burn the shallots so use the saucepan lid to cover and add moisture if required.

When the shallots start to soften add the garlic and celery and cook through for another 2-3 minutes. Stick with the low heat. You don’t want to brown any of the ingredients otherwise you will darken the soup’s colour, and, potentially, make the soup taste bitter.

Now, add the saffron and the water used to soak the saffron along with the sherry. Heat this through until the sherry has reduced by half. You can increase the heat a little hear if needed.

Once the sherry has reduced add the stock and risotto rice and bring to a simmer.

Keep this simmering for at least 20 minutes. It will ready for finishing off when the risotto rice is soft and cooked through.

3. Finish the soup ready and serve

To finish the soup you first need to blend all of the ingredients and then pass through a sieve to remove any of the garlic or onions husks.

To blend, use a food processor if you have one. A hand blender will also do the job. Blend in batches if you need to. Once blended pass through a standard sieve back into the clean saucepan. Make sure you press all of the solid ingredients that are left to extract as much of the flavour as you can.

With the soup passed back into the saucepan simply reheat and add the lemon juice and cream.

Season this to taste and you are ready to serve.

4. Serve the soup with bread or cheese and chive croutons

With the soup hot and seasoned you can now serve in soup bowls. The easy accompaniment is fresh crusty bread. However, if you feel like pushing the boat out a little why not do what I did and make some cheese and chive scones. You can find the recipe by clicking the link or the picture below.

I ended up crumbling a couple of the scones up and sprinkling them over the soups as croutons and serving an individual scone to each of my guests to dip in as the wanted. They were a real hit!!

Well, that’s it my friends. A very tasty and creamy garlic and onion soup this time. I hope you enjoyed it. If you give it a go I love to know how you get on so just use the comments section below. All views welcome.

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As always, many thanks for reading and until next time… Steve.

5. Nutritional values

6. Printable recipe

Steve Deacon

Founder & Writer

Hi, I'm Steve, founder of The Yum Yum Club. After years in the corporate rat race traveling the world, my wife Jen and I settled back in the UK to follow our true passion: great food and wine. Having worked in restaurant kitchens in my youth, I share honest home-cooked recipes, kitchen timing tips, and culinary discoveries.

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