This article explores a variety of keto garlic soup recipes, offering a comforting and flavorful experience while adhering to a low-carb lifestyle. From classic French variations to creamy roasted garlic soups with chicken, there's a recipe to satisfy every palate.
Understanding Garlic Soup
Garlic soup is essentially a garlic-centric soup, much like cream of mushroom soup is a celebration of mushrooms. It's a garlic-lover's dream, featuring the bold, aromatic flavor of garlic as its star ingredient. While any garlic soup recipe will contain a lot of garlic, the cooking process mellows the flavor, making it surprisingly mild and delicious.
French Garlic Soup (Le Tourin à l’Ail)
French Garlic Soup, or Le Tourin à l’Ail, is a classic herb French soup. Although it is a staple in the South of France, it was made famous in the United States by Julia Child. Her original recipe has been repeated often. The main ingredients of garlic, water, eggs, and olive oil are present in virtually all posts. Joanie puts a few unique twists on her version and likes to make a large pot. It has even more flavor than the original.
Joanie uses a blend of garlic for her French Garlic Soup. One head is roasted in the oven, and the other is cooked raw in the stock. Joanie substitutes chicken stock for her French Garlic Soup instead of using plain water. She likes the added flavor and feels it also makes her soup a bit heartier. She also enhances the herb experience using cloves, sage, bay leaf, and thyme. Fresh herbs are always better. However, if you have trouble finding fresh, substitute with dried. Increase the thyme (perhaps double) if you use dried.
Two tips are essential for the perfect soup. First, use an Emersion Blender or regular Vitamix before adding the heavy cream. You want the soup to be a bisque-style, but if you blend it after putting in the cream you will actually end up with whipped-cream garlic. Secondly, make sure you temper your egg yolk-red wine vinegar mixture with a small amount of the hot soup before drizzling into the soup. You do not want scrambled eggs. French Garlic Soup is loaded with exquisite flavor.
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Ingredients and Preparation
- Cut the top off a whole head of garlic.
- Drizzle the head with olive oil, salt, pepper and wrap it entirely in foil.
- Bake in a shallow dish in a preheated 400 degree oven for 40 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly, then the roasted garlic cloves will pop right out of the head.
- Heat the butter and oilive oil over medium heat in a Dutch Oven.
- Add the sliced shallot and soften for 3 minutes.
- Smash all of the garlic cloves (roasted and raw).
- Add to the Dutch Oven and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Pour in the warm chicken stock and spices and cook for 5 minutes.
- Lower the heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaf.
- Use an blender to smooth the soup (or an emersion). You may have to work in batches and allow for some cooling first to use a blender.
- Pour the puree of soup back into your Dutch Oven (still on simmer).
- Add the heavy cream and stir briefly to incorporate into the soup.
- In a small bowl or cup, whisk the egg yolks with the red wine vinegar.
- Lightly whisk the egg whites in a separate small bowl or cup.
- Drizzle and whisk the egg whites into the soup, stirring and allowing for stringy consistency.
- Then temper the yolks with a small amount of soup and drizzle into the soup in the same manner, stirring constantly.
- A unique garnish, and very French, would be to add a tablespoon of red wine to each cup of soup before serving. Let your guest stir and add their own cheese.
- To cut your time, you can skip roasting the one head of garlic and simply use two heads smashed.
Keto Creamy Garlic Soup
This keto creamy garlic soup was on the menu in a newly opened restaurant. The soup has a slightly sweet taste, probably because of the garlic.
Keto Roasted Tomato & Garlic Soup
This light, yet insanely flavorful keto roasted tomato & garlic soup is sure to be a favorite with my fellow tomato soup lovers! Because winter tomatoes are usually sad and mostly tasteless, I chose to roast them, along with some cloves of peeled garlic for this soup. A splash of apple cider vinegar at the very end gives the soup a mouthwatering quality that keeps you coming back for more and more and more. This keto roasted tomato & garlic soup is light on calories and big on flavor.
Keto Cream of Mushroom Soup with Roasted Garlic
This keto soup recipe has all the classic flavors of a traditional mushroom soup, made with a mushroom medley, chicken broth, half and half, fresh herbs, butter, onion, and celery. The recipe is topped it with roasted garlic, a swirl of olive oil, fresh parsley, and crispy bacon.
Mushroom Selection
For this recipe, you can use a mix of your favorite edible mushrooms: shiitake, cremini, baby bella, white button, porcini, portobello, whatever your preference is. Gather up 14 ounces of mushrooms from the grocery store -- wild mushroom foraging is pretty dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Preparation
- Cut the top 1⁄4 inch off the bulb of garlic, exposing the cloves.
- Place on a sheet of aluminum foil that is large enough to wrap around the entire bulb.
- Drizzle the bulb of garlic with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Heat the butter in a stock pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat.
- Add the mushrooms, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper to the pot, and sauté for an additional 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have released their liquid and are tender.
- Add the chicken stock, cream, and 6 cloves of roasted garlic to the pot.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to low to simmer.
- Transfer to a high-powered blender (alternatively, you could also use an immersion blender right in the stock pot).
- Pulse until smooth, being careful not to overfill the blender cup as hot liquids will rise in volume.
Keto Classic Garlic Soup
Warm your soul and tantalize your taste buds with this rich and creamy Keto Classic Garlic Soup, a low-carb twist on the beloved traditional recipe. Featuring the bold, aromatic flavor of 12 garlic cloves, gently caramelized in butter and olive oil, this soup is a comforting blend of savory chicken broth, velvety heavy cream, and the earthy notes of fresh thyme and a hint of bay leaf. With optional Parmesan cheese for added decadence, this keto-friendly dinner idea is perfect for chilly nights or any time you crave a wholesome, satisfying dish.
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Instructions
- Remove the bay leaf and use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth.
- Stir in the heavy cream, and season with salt and black pepper.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, then serve hot.
Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup with Chicken
A creamy roasted garlic soup recipe with hearty chunks of chicken. I pop something like Chicken Roasted Garlic Soup or Paleo Thai Chicken Zoodle Soup into a pot to heat.
Ingredients and Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350F and place unpeeled garlic cloves in a shallow baking dish.
- Add olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat.
- Roast until garlic is golden brown, about 35 minutes.
- Cool and squeeze out garlic with fingers into a small bowl.
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.
- Add onions and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes.
- Add roasted garlic, additional garlic cloves, and thyme and cook 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant.
- Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer.
- Cook 20 minutes.
- Puree using a blender or immersion blender.
- Serves 6.
The Magic of Roasted Garlic
Our creamy garlic soup recipe calls for four heads of garlic-not cloves, heads. Now, before you worry that you’re going to have to eat this soup in the privacy of your bedroom and wait six-to-eight weeks before socializing again, hear us out. While fresh, raw garlic is a powerful allium that packs a seriously sharp punch, roasted garlic is a different beast entirely. Once roasted, fresh garlic cloves melt and become sweet, taking on a mellow, almost nutty flavor. This sweet and yielding iteration of garlic is what our garlic soup is built on-nothing sharp here. Just purely flavorful, creamy bowls of comfort.
Roasting Garlic: A Step-by-Step Guide
No garlic soup recipe is complete without a fool-proof, easy roasted garlic recipe, obviously!
- Preheat your oven to 425ºF with a rack in the center position.
- Trim the tops off the garlic heads just enough to expose the cloves.
- Place each head on a separate piece of aluminum foil.
- Pour the olive oil over the exposed cloves.
- Wrap the foil around each head of garlic and place on a sheet pan.
- Roast the garlic for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown and soft.
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the foil.
Flavor Enhancements and Variations
- Pancetta: In a large soup pot over medium heat, cook the pancetta, stirring occasionally, until crispy, 5 to 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a bowl, reserving the rendered fat in the pot. Add the onion to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Vegetarian Option: Skip the pancetta or perhaps try porcini mushrooms.
- Coconut Milk: You could try full fat canned coconut milk.
- Red Wine: A unique garnish, and very French, would be to add a tablespoon of red wine to each cup of soup before serving. Let your guest stir and add their own cheese.
Health Considerations
The possible health benefits of garlic have actually studied pretty extensively, and raw garlic does seem to contain powerful antioxidants, antimicrobial possibly antiviral properties. That said, this soup is a “maybe a little bit healthy” at best. Our garlic soup recipe features roasted garlic, instead of raw-which is the type of garlic that has been studied the most-so unfortunately many health benefits might be lost in the roasting process. Plus, the heavy cream and pancetta might cancel out any other benefits the soup may offer. But! What’s good for the soul is good for the body, right? And we can say for sure that this soup is our version of soul food.
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