accidental soup

Recipe for roasted burnt garlic and potato soup

I was hungry. I was sickly, trying to get over a tenacious debilitating upper respiratory infection. Mike was sleeping. We were down to a few old potatoes ( the ugly ones that no one wants to bother with, too puny, too gnarly). I may have been running a fever. 

Are you feeling sorry for me yet?

So I peeled the potatoes and began the boil. Found half an onion in the fridge, some garlic in the garlic keeper on the counter and tossed it all in the pot. After the potato softened I drained the pot, leaving a little of the original water in it and added the chicken broth left over from who knows when 

and then! the coup de gras ...fat free half and half. 

I put it on a low flame and went back to the couch and forgot about it. 

Until Mike woke up and asked  what I was burning. 

I leapt from my nest and ran to the kitchen-about four feet, and found my soup in a near burned condition, thick and browning at the edges and just barely salvageable. and it was the. best. soup. ever. 

Have I re-invented the twice baked potato soup of some once and former time? It is delicious. The burned garlic makes it so. The onions are indistinguishable and the consistency is of mashed potatoes and extra gravy. 

The first time, since I burned it, I did not need a roux. I was tempted to add butter but declined. Mike added pepper. I could imagine left over ham, or capers and anchovies or indeed even a de chickenifed vegetarian version. I suppose you could pre roast the garlic, make biscuits from scratch and add sherry, if you are so inclined, but I am satisfied with the simplicity of my accidental soup.

It is the hit of the season! A humble soup. A gratifying fare, and as I bake the pillsbury grands rolls from a tube to go with it, and consider an extra dab of butter, I thought I would share this story of my new re invention. 

Welcome to our winter table.