Garlic Piperade Soup: Put those 80 cloves of garlic to good use!
This recipe–with its 80 cloves of garlic, blanched and then minced–maybe should have made me blanche when I first ran across it in my worn copy of Jane Brody’s Good Food Book. But I didn’t even flinch. In fact, I did the opposite of blanche: I became intrigued, and instantly I was filled with a desire to make this soup more than anything else on earth. Well, nearly.
I love garlic, and I love how good it is for me and my family, so I decided to give it a try, although I held my breath when I served it to my family. Garlic is a natural antibiotic and an antioxidant, after all, among other things, so of course I’m going to try to get as much of it as possible into those I care for, right? My family, dear and sweet as they all are, are not tremendously courageous when it comes to trying out new recipes, bless them.
This time, my family surprised me.
They absolutely loved this soup. They still love this soup, after my preparing it for them countless times. Though fall is the ideal time to make this soup, when my garden is still full of heirloom tomatoes and bell peppers of every color and the pantry is well stocked with my winter’s supply of fresh onions and garlic from the garden, you can make it any time, even when you are reduced to buying canned tomatoes and fresh peppers and all the rest, and when we are struggling with winter’s doses of colds and the flu.
It’s a surprisingly delicious soup, and with all those nutritious vegetables, you just know that you’re building better health by the spoonful.
When there is somebody sick in our house, we always make this soup. The smell of all that garlic and the onions, too, simmering in a rich broth is enough to make the sickest person perk up a little. That smell says “Somebody loves me,” and that’s the first step in getting better, don’t you agree?
Have I convinced you to try it yet? Here’s the recipe, just in case I have:
- 80 garlic cloves, blanched for 30 secs in boiling water, rinsed, peeled, and sliced.
- 8 cups sliced onions
- 4 cups sliced green peppers, or a combination of green and red or yellow
- 6 T oil, preferably olive
- 12 cups peeled, sliced ripe tomatoes (or use canned)
- 8 cups beef broth (I’ve used deer bone broth, or chicken broth, and all are good)
- sliced dark bread, cubed
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- grated Parmesan for garnish (optional, but so good!)
- In a large sauce pan or stock pot, saute the onions and peppers in the oil until soft, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and tomatoes. Reduce heat, cover the pan, tightly simmer for 30 minutes.
- Pour in the broth, heat the soup just to a boil. When serving, heap bread cubes on top of each bowl, grind fresh pepper, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese. Soo good!
This soup, with all of its chopping and sauteing, is really a great thing to make with a couple of friends or children in the kitchen with you!
I’d love to hear about it if you try out this recipe, and if you’d like to share it with your friends (because they probably need to have more reasons to eat garlic, too!) that would be awesome, too. (And thank you!)
🙂
*hugs*
- Check out “Aprons,” stories from the trenches of the food and drink industry
- Pearls from little Mack
I know I would like this soup from the ingredients (and the yummy pic!) and I’ll just have to take your word for it on the 80 cloves of garlic!
Thanks Karen, I’d love to hear about it if you make it! Oooh, take a picture of you sitting out on that lovely balcony, overlooking the sea, with your bowl of garlic piperade!
I love soups and garlic, but 80 cloves? My hubby won’t get near me for a week…lol great recipe Amy!
Vicki, when you blanche the garlic first, it takes away the sharpness. You just have to make sure your hubby likes it, too! 😉
Well I think you know where I’m going with this one. I must have my daily garlic “Fix” or the world just does not spin correctly. I must make this recipe asap. Of course I will tweak it just a tad, chefs do that sort of thing you know. It looks so Good and I’m sure my wife will like it as well. Thanks for sharing a healthy recipe.
Chef, I like to make my own bread to top it with, also, something very hearty and chewy. Don’t use store bread, whatever you do, it’ll just soak in and be soggy. I’d love to hear about your tweaks when you make it! Thanks again for stopping in!
Sounds really yummy. Sounds like a Garlic lovers dream.
Thanks, Mark. It really is delicious.
Sounds like a great recipe, and I just brought a load of garlic a couple of days ago. I love how beneficial for the body it is. Blessings for the weekend. Amanda
Thanks for stopping by, Amanda, and I hope it works out well for you!
Nothing like hot soup on a chilly day. Makes the house smell good. Not sure about 80 gloves of garlic. Now I’ll have to try this… but of course maybe not with so much garlic, but then why not!
Do try it! The garlic isn’t as strong as you might think.
Amy,
This sounds amazing and I would love to be able to share it with the click of a button on other social media sites so my foodie friends can enjoy your offerings as well.
I copied and pasted to share on facebook and on twitter.
Blessings,
Kina
1. I love my Jane Brody cookbooks!
2. I love this soup!
Making me feel like getting up out of my chair where I’ve been sorting paperwork for hours and make some soup!
Thanks!
Anne
You go, girl! Make that soup!
Oh wow, you may have noticed I’m a bit soup obsessed from the 40 plus recipes on my blog. This looks delish and I cannot wait to give it a whirl. I just love garlic too, it’s just amazing I’m going to share this my FB page.
Do try it, Anita-Clare, and then tell me what you think! Thanks!
Amy, do you perchance have a bread recipe you would like to share that would go well with this soup?? Can’t wait to try it!
I do, Lynda, I do! Let me work on a quick blog post for that. It’s just my basic light whole wheat bucket dough bread. It’s the easiest (and the best!) thing EVER. I’ll try to get that done in the next week or two, just for you! <3
Amy, you are the best! I really appreciate you! I check yesterday and I still , about 20 heads of garlic, so Yay!
Thanks so much!
Lynda
I’ve been making this soup for over three decades now. My variations:
— I use elephant garlic now, and plenty of it. The amount of cloves are still the same (80), but the elephant garlic is so much larger.
— I use red, orange and yellow peppers instead of green, and I (quite painstakingly) slice them very thin; the result is almost like a technicolor spaghetti effect, and with the dark bread, the soup is as intriguing to the eyes as it is to the nose and tongue.
oooh! I love these suggestions! I’ve also used the colored peppers instead of the green. Do you use a sharp knife, of do you have some sort of slicer that you use?
I use a regular knife; no special tools here.
I’m currently preparing to make my annual autumnal batch of soups (which I then freeze and enjoy over the coming months) and, in discussing this with my sister, received this wonderful idea from her: I like the garlic sliced really thin, and she suggested that I do that with a razor blade. Also painstaking, I know. But it will look great!
I’ll let you know how this turns out. [Eventually, that is. I just realized my original post was from four years ago!]
Gosh! I’d love to know how this works! I’m more of a chop-as-quickly-as-possible gal, but I’m certain the razor blade will make very attractive thin slices!