All Roads Lead to the Kitchen: Sopa de Ajo

50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker

Author: Lynn Alley
Publisher: Andrews McMeel

Hard Cover (spiral bound): 84 Pages
photos: yes

Chapters/Sections: Introduction, Body (recipes), Index

Fantastic Features: This book is tiny, tempting, and packed with mouthwatering photos that will make you feel warm and cozy...and long for cool days in which you can eat soup while relaxing at home. Or while tailgating in the Autumn weather. Or after cracking open a thermos at work. Aaaahhhh....

(a few of the many) Recipes Destined for my Kitchen: Black Bean Chili w/ Cornbread Crust, Blue Cheese Potato Soup, Creamy Butternut Squash, Mushroom, Prune, and Rice Soup, Garlic, Onion, and Leek Soup w/ Cream, Enchilada Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Potato, Broccoli, and Cheese Soup, Spiced Apple Pie Soup, Tuscan White Bean Soup w/ Olive Oil and Rosemary

Additional Thoughts: This is a small, simple book with just 51 recipes. But each recipe is a star in its own right. This books showcases the beauty, flavor, textures, and nutrition that you can get in a soup by simply focusing on fruits, grains, and vegetables. I added chicken broth instead of using just the water called for when I made the Sopa de Ajo (pictured below), but this was out of personal preference...and using up some broth I'd made a day or so earlier. Alley is a soup-lover and a slow-cooker expert. This is a fun little book to add to your collection if you're a soup lover, a fan of meals you can cook up in the slow cooker, a vegetarian...or if you simply wish to beef up your cookbook collection with a good book of tasty soups. I think it would also make a fabulous gift for someone heading off to college (with a slow cooker and an immersion blender alongside) or perhaps a young person or couple embarking on a new chapter in their life.

Recipe I have already tried:

Sopa de Ajo

about the author (from Amazon): Lynn Alley began her career in cooking as a middle school teacher where she and her students gained notoriety selling their hand made gourmet items at Neiman Marcus. Alley long ago began writing and saving recipes so that down the road she could write the cookbooks for which she has become known. Since leaving the classroom, she has traveled to teach cooking in southern France and at cooking schools throughout the western United States. She has, over the years, contributed articles on both food and wine to the San Diego Union Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated, The Herb Companion, Health, Natural Home, Organic Style, and Organic Gardening, and has authored six cookbooks. For more than ten years, she has also been a regular contributer to the Wine Spectator online and magazine, and her "Conscious Cook" blog appears weekly on the Yoga Journal's website, yoga journal. com.

An avid animal lover, she has also contributed article on animal diet, travel and wellbeing to the Natural Dog, Dog Fancy, and the Herb Companion.

*I received a free copy of this book to review from the publisher. All thoughts and opinions stated in this post are 100% mine.
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If you drop by my place with any regularity, you know that to me, any season is soup season. Buuuuuuut, I know not everybody feels that way. Fortunately, the chill is creeping into the air, beckoning most of us; making us yearn for a big pot of comfort bubbling away on the stove. Or perhaps the slow cookers have started to make appearances on counter tops; claiming residence for the season. Another thing I love that plays a starring role when the weather starts to change is garlic. Really, I'm a garlic anytime kinda girl, but warm, concentrated garlicky soups and broths help me feel healthy and chase away little colds this time of year. Plus, they're just plain delicious. In my opinion, there is no such thing as too many varieties of Garlic Soup or Sopa de Ajo floating around out there. this version is definitely a keeper.

Sopa de Ajo

{Garlic Soup}

adapted from 50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker

serves 4-6

¼ c. olive oil

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

4 large heads garlic, cloves separated & peeled

6 c. chicken stock/broth

juice of 1 lemon

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 ripe avocado, diced

~4 oz feta cheese or queso fresco, crumbled

1 ripe, yet firm tomato, diced

handful of cilantro, picked

few scallions, sliced thinly

Place oil, onion, and garlic in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for ~6 hours or until garlic is golden and tender.

Add chicken stock and cook for another 2 hours. Purée the soup using an immersion blender (or if you don't have one, carefully do it in the blender, then return to pot). Stir in the lemon juice, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, divide the avocado, cheese, and tomato amongst serving bowls. Ladle the hot broth over the ingredients and top each bowl with a sprinkling of cilantro and scallions.