Beautiful Roasted Fennel and Garlic Soup

Being a huge fan of garlic I had been willing to make a simple roasted garlic soup for months and couldn't make myself just go and do it putting it off and off. Until I thought that roasted garlic could make a nice pair with fennel - both are rather sweet and creamy when roasted, and the idea looked so interesting that I made this soup almost immediately.

No surprise, the dish turned out to be incredible! No milk, just veggies and a little bit of olive oil - and you get such a beautiful tender creamy texture that you can hardly believe the soup is actually so light and simple! This one definitely goes into my favourites list!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 garlic heads (about 35 cloves), cloves washed but unpeeled

2 garlic heads (about 35 cloves), cloves peeled

1 fennel bulb (about 200 g)

2 yellow onions

10 green olives, unpitted

a good pinch of nutmeg

1 bay leaf

300 ml boiling water

good quality extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F.

Wash and cut your fennel into equal segments and place them into a baking tray.

Add washed and unpeeled garlic cloves to the fennel, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and generously drizzle with good quality olive oil. Toss well, cover with foil and place the tray into the oven for 40 minutes.

In 40 minutes put the tray out of the oven and let the vegetables cool a bit. Meanwhile heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat, thinly slice 2 onions and add them to the pan along with peeled garlic cloves. Add a bay leaf and a good pinch of nutmeg and cook stirring occasionally until the onions soften for about 10 minutes.

When our baked vegetables become cool enough to handle squeeze garlic cloves and add the mass along with fennel to the pan. Add 300 ml water, bring to the boil, turn down the heat, cover with a lid and let simmer for 10 more minutes.

Transfer the soup to the bowl of your blender and puree. Season with more sea salt and black pepper if needed.

Take 10 green olives, smash them, pit and chop finely.

Pour the soup into the bowls, add a couple tablespoons chopped olives into each bowl, drizzle with some more good quality extra virgin olive oil and serve. This is a beautiful creamy vegetable soup, absolutely light and healthy, you will love it.

Bon Appétit!