Roast garlic and chorizo soup

Serves: 6
Course: Starter
Cooking Time: 0 hr 45 mins
Ingredients
  • Serves 6
  • 6 whole garlic bulbs, cloves separated but not peeled
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 2 celery sticks, finely diced
  • Small bunch of thyme, leaves picked
  • 250g fresh Gubbeen chorizo, cut into small pieces
  • 1/2 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
  • 1.5 litres chicken stock
  • Bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves stripped and finely chopped, to serve
  • Salt and freshly ground blackPepper

This is a soup recipe that came from our good friend Mark Murphy. It is warming and restores faith in life on a cold day.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4. Put the garlic cloves in a baking tray with two tablespoons of the oil, cover with tinfoil and cook in the oven for about 25-30 minutes.

At this point the cloves should be golden and soft. Allow them to cool slightly and reserve the oil. When the garlic is cool enough to handle, peel it and blend it to a puree.

Heat the rest of the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over a medium heat, then add the diced onion plus a pinch of salt. Cook gently for about five minutes, add the celery and thyme leaves and continue to cook for a further five minutes.

Turn up the heat slightly, add the chorizo and cook for about three minutes or until the chorizo has caramelised slightly. Stir in the smoked paprika and mix well. Add the roasted garlic puree and the chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a simmer and leave it to simmer for about 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt and black pepper.

To serve, add the chopped parsley and drizzle some of the reserved oil from the roasted garlic on top.