Wild Garlic Soup

Wild garlic soup using the best wild garlic the season has to offer. Foraged fresh leaves picked that morning making the freshest of soups.

Wild garlic soup is a seasonal favourite of mine, but one I only really get to enjoy during April to June. I love cooking with wild garlic and eat it as much as I can during it's short growing season. It's a seasonal ingredient I love to eat and I look forward to it's arrival on our woodland floor every year.

I forage the garlic leaves in the woods local to my house where they grown in abundance, but these days you can often pick them up in bunches in our greengrocers and local farm shops.

Wild garlic soup is so simple to make, prepared, cooked and ready to eat in well under 30 minutes. This beautiful fresh tasting soup is always the first thing I cook with this fragrant springtime green.

Many wild garlic soup recipes start with a potato based soup then a little wild garlic is added to it. That is not the case with our soup. Our wild garlic soup is all about the wild garlic - it's the hero ingredient!

Potato is added, but not too much, just enough to thicken it. The result is a deliciously light soup that tastes like Spring in a bowl.

How to make Wild Garlic Soup

• Melt the butter in a pan, soften the onions for 5 minutes and add in the potato and stock.

• Once the potatoes have softened add the wild garlic and cook for 2 minutes.

• Blitz the soup to smooth using a stick blender, add cream and season to taste.

How to forage for wild garlic

If you fancy foraging for wild garlic it can be found growing in woodlands around the UK from March to June. You won’t find it growing out in the open, it likes to grow under the shade of trees, often in damp ground, so look in shaded woodland.

The broad leaves are vibrant green, and best picked young when they are most flavoursome, before they start to flower. That’s not to say you can’t eat the leaves once they are in flower, you can! In fact I eat these delicious leaves the entire growing season to make the very best of wild garlic while it is here!

Please take care when picking wild garlic to only remove the leaves, don’t pull too hard or you’ll remove the bulb as well and you don’t want to spoil next years crop. As with all foraging take only what you need and treat the site with care so you can enjoy it again next year.

Finally, if you fancy foraging for wild garlic please be mindful. Don't pick from the side of the road as there is too much pollution here from cars.

What does wild garlic taste like?

Do not be put off by the pungent smell of this green, leafy herb. The aroma of wild garlic hits you well before you arrive at a patch of it and it can be quite overpowering! However, the taste is a lot more mellow than the smell wafting from a decent handful might suggest!

Wild garlic has a mellow garlic flavour, somewhat like a garlic chive. The flavour is far fresher and herbal, rather than pungent like a garlic clove. This makes it ideal for eating both cooked and raw.

Worth noting, wild garlic is best picked when young, before it flowers, that's when it is at it's most flavoursome. However, that's not to say that you can't enjoy it once it is in flower.

What does wild garlic soup taste like?

Michelle was very sceptical about this soup, but I promised her she'd enjoy it. Indeed, there was a lot of very uncertain faces around my own dinner table when I first made this soup. I like to serve it simply with some crusty bread alongside.

However, the raw pungency of the leaf really does not come through on the taste. In fact the taste is somewhat surprising, what you have is a light, beautifully fresh soup that tastes of Spring in my opinion. It's not heavy on garlic, but light, bright, clean tasting soup.

Wild Garlic Soup Recipe ingredients

• Wild garlic is a great leafy green that cooks similar to spinach in that you just need to wilt it in the soup - no need for a long cook here. Although it smells quite pungent the flavour of garlic comes through a lot milder once cooked.
• Potatoes are added to the base of this soup, to thicken the soup without the need to add any flour. I think this results in a far lighter soup. Just take care to only add three medium sized potatoes, no more than that.
• Vegetable stock is the best stock to use for wild garlic soup as it doesn't overpower the soup. You can use homemade vegetable stock if you have it, but not to worry if you don't, use a veggie stock cube. I like to use Knorr vegetable stock pots.
• Double cream is added in a small amount to balance the soup and add just a touch of richness. Not too much though as you want the wild garlic to shine in this soup. You can leave it out entirely if you prefer.

Can you make this recipe ahead of time?

As with most soups, wild garlic soup can be made ahead of time and reheated when you are ready to eat. What I do in this instance is make the soup and blitz it to smooth. Only adding the cream into the soup when I'm reheating and ready to serve.

Can you freeze wild garlic soup?

Wild garlic is only around for a couple of months each year so I like to make the very best of it while I can. For that reason I like to make double quantities of this soup, enjoying some and freezing a portion for later. This is how you can extend the enjoyment of a herb that is only around for a couple of months.

Simply make the soup, allow it cool complete before placing it in containers ready for the freezer.

Useful hints & tips

1. Feeding a crowd? No problem, this simple recipe can be doubled or tripled depending on the number of guests.
2. This soup is a great soup to serve to Coeliacs or anyone following a gluten free diet just ensure that the vegetable stock you use is gluten free.
3. To serve this soup to vegans or anyone following a dairy free diet replace the regular butter with a non-dairy option and the double cream with a vegan alternative like Elmlea Double Plant Cream.
4. Allergy advice: gluten free, egg free, soya free and nut free. For comprehensive and detailed allergy advice go to Allergy UK.

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Additional recipe suggestions

If you enjoyed this recipe then why not try some of my other wild garlic recipes:

• Warm Potato Salad with Wild Garlic
• Comte & Wild Garlic Tart
• Wild Garlic Butter
• Wild Garlic Chimichurri

For some great hints and tips on how to make a great bowl of soup, have a read of my 20 Simple Soup Recipes post. This features some delicious soup recipes for you to try!

Also have a look at my 5 Wild Garlic Recipes post which features our favourite ways to make the most of this delicious leafy green when it is in season.