Wild garlic soup lives or dies by three minutes. We add the sliced wild garlic right at the end of cooking and only let it heat briefly. Anyone who cooks it longer drives out exactly the aroma you go foraging in the woods for in spring: that garlic-like, slightly mustardy heat that sets fresh wild garlic apart from wilted leaves.
We make this soup every spring as soon as the first carpets of wild garlic appear in the woods, usually from mid-April to mid-May. By now we know exactly where our spots are, and we also know that the soup turns out just as creamy without any cream if you use the right potato. The 300 g of floury potatoes in this recipe is no accident. They are the real engine of the creaminess. The cream comes in at the end but it is not what binds the soup.
Creamy Wild Garlic Soup with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 11 ✓
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 onions
- 30 g butter
- 300 g floury potatoes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 600 g vegetable stock
- 150 g double cream
- 120 g wild garlic
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 10 g lemon juice
- 1 tsp white pepper
Instructions 0 / 8
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1
Peel the garlic.
Peel the garlic and place it in the mixing bowl.
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2
Chop the onions.
Peel the onions, halve them, place them in the mixing bowl, chop for 5 seconds / speed 5 and push down with the spatula.
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3
Sweat the onions.
Add the butter to the mixing bowl and sweat for 3 minutes / Varoma / speed 1.
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4
Chop the potatoes.
Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces.
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5
Cook the potatoes.
Add the potatoes with the salt, vegetable stock and double cream to the mixing bowl and cook for 15 minutes / 100°C / speed 1.
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6
Slice the wild garlic.
Meanwhile, wash the wild garlic and cut it into strips.
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7
Season and cook the soup.
Set aside 20 g of wild garlic, then add the rest to the mixing bowl along with the nutmeg, lemon juice and pepper. Blend for 15 seconds gradually increasing to speed 10, then cook for 2 minutes / 100°C / speed 1.
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8
Serve.
Serve the soup garnished with the wild garlic strips.
Tip: You can blend the soup more or less depending on your preference. We like it not completely smooth. Start with a few seconds and work from there.
Nutrition per serving
Why wild garlic should only cook for three minutes
Wild garlic contains the same sulphur compounds as garlic, just in a finer, fresher form. These compounds are heat-sensitive. After five to six minutes at 100°C they start to break down, and what remains is a green soup that tastes of spinach. That is exactly why so many wild garlic soups online seem flat: the wild garlic goes in too early and cooks for too long.
We do it differently in the Thermomix®. First the garlic, onion and butter are sweated, then the potatoes go in with the salt, vegetable stock and double cream. 15 minutes / 100°C / speed 1 is enough for the potatoes to cook through and release their starch. The wild garlic waits on the board in the meantime. Only then do we add it, blend for 15 seconds gradually increasing to speed 10 and cook the soup for just 2 minutes / 100°C / speed 1 more. Those two minutes are enough to bring the soup back to temperature. Wild garlic needs nothing more than that.
Floury potatoes do half the job of cream
With potato soups, cream is often poured in until the soup looks creamy enough. With wild garlic soup that is a mistake, because too much cream flattens the flavour. Floury potatoes (varieties such as Adretta, Augusta or Bintje) have a high starch content. When blended at speed 10, the starch cells burst and thicken the stock by themselves. The 150 g of double cream in the recipe gives a pleasant richness, but two thirds of the creaminess comes from the potato.
If you use waxy potatoes, you will end up with a watery soup full of lumps. Longer blending will not fix it. It is worth checking the bag before you shop.
Recognising wild garlic safely
If you are foraging yourself, the smell test is essential. Wild garlic leaves smell strongly of garlic when you crush them. Lily of the valley, autumn crocus and young lords-and-ladies look similar but do not smell of garlic. If you are even slightly unsure, leave the leaf. Lily of the valley often grows in the same woods, and its toxins affect the heart. The smell test loses its value once your hands smell of wild garlic, so we prefer to pick carefully in one spot and test each leaf individually before the garlic scent settles on our fingers.
At the farmers market or health food shop things are simpler. The stems make identification easy: each leaf grows separately on its own stem, is matt on both sides and releases its aroma immediately when rubbed. We buy the 120 g in a bunch, because the leaves keep fresher longer if you stand them in water like cut flowers.
Washing wild garlic without losing the flavour
Wild garlic is delicate. Do not soak it in standing water. Instead, rinse it briefly under cold running water and pat it dry immediately. Leaving the leaves in a water bath for ten minutes washes out the essential oils that make the aroma. That is the second most common reason wild garlic soups turn out flat, right after cooking for too long.
We cut 20 g aside before blending. These strips go on the soup raw and deliver a fresh accent on top. That way every portion has two layers of wild garlic: the mild, cooked flavour in the soup and the vibrant freshness on the plate.
What can throw the flavour off at the last moment
Too much nutmeg overpowers the wild garlic
One pinch is enough. Nutmeg has a warm, nutty note that goes well with potato, but it is dominant. Anyone who shakes the jar over the soup twice will end up tasting nothing but nutmeg. Our approach: A true pinch between thumb and forefinger, freshly grated from the whole nut. Ground nutmeg from a jar has often already lost its aroma and tempts you to keep adding more.
Lemon juice only at the end
The 10 g of lemon juice lifts the wild garlic and adds freshness, but it must not go in too early. Acid meeting cream and heat creates a mixture that can curdle if everything cooks together for too long. Our approach: The lemon juice goes in with the wild garlic when blending, just before the final two minutes of cooking.
Season before tasting
Vegetable stock varies a lot in salt content from brand to brand. Homemade vegetable paste often contains 30 to 40 per cent salt, while bought stock varies considerably. Our approach: Start with the half teaspoon from the recipe, then taste at the end and season further as needed. Better to add salt twice than to oversalt once.
How we vary the soup without ruining it
With plant-based cream and olive oil instead of butter: Works one to one as long as the plant cream has at least 15 per cent fat. Oat cream turns slightly sweeter, soy cream stays more neutral. Olive oil when sweating the onion replaces the 30 g of butter without any loss of flavour.
With toasted flaked almonds as a topping: Toast them dry in a frying pan until golden and scatter over each portion. This adds texture and a second flavour layer alongside the fresh wild garlic strips.
With adjusted potato quantities: For a thicker soup, increase the potatoes to 350 g and reduce the stock to 550 g. For a thinner starter soup, keep the potatoes at 300 g and use 700 g of stock. The ratio of potato to liquid controls the consistency, not the cream.
With a poached egg in the middle: One egg per portion turns the starter into a main course. We cook the egg separately, as it does not work in the mixing bowl.
How long the wild garlic soup keeps
In the fridge for two days, in a screw-top jar with a lid. Reheat slowly, ideally in a saucepan over medium heat while stirring, not in the microwave. Microwaved soup tastes flat afterwards because the cream gets too hot in spots.
Freezing works only marginally. The soup turns slightly grainy on thawing because the cream separates. If you want to freeze it, cook the soup without the cream and stir in fresh cream only after thawing. The wild garlic loses a lot of its aroma when frozen anyway, so it is better to make just enough for the day and start fresh the next day while the season lasts.
What to serve alongside
We serve the soup with a slice of toasted bread and a dollop of soured cream on top. Anyone who wants to make the most of wild garlic season can pair it with wild garlic pesto on bread or a second wild garlic element in a pasta dish. The two do not clash, because the pesto is cold and punchy while the soup is warm and mild.
Other soups from our collection that need the same careful approach with heat:
- Leek cream soup with the same potato-based binding
- Potato soup as the base version without herbs
- Tomato soup for the weeks after wild garlic season ends
- Pumpkin soup as the autumn counterpart to this spring broth
Exactly when wild garlic season is
The wild garlic window is shorter than most people think. The first leaves appear in mild spots from mid-March, with the main season running from early April to mid-May. As soon as the first white flowers open, the flavour turns bitter and the leaves become fibrous. From that point on the soup is no longer worth making. We note the date when we spot the first flower, and pick or buy a larger batch in the week before to make a stock of pesto.
Goes well with: soured cream.
If you have missed the season, you can use frozen wild garlic from a health food shop. 100 g of frozen wild garlic replaces the 120 g of fresh one to one, and goes straight from the bag into the mixing bowl without thawing first. The flavour is milder than with fresh wild garlic, but the sulphur compounds are protected by the ice. Wild garlic in oil from a jar does not work for this soup, because the oil throws off the consistency and masks the acidity from the lemon.
Fresh herb soups like this one depend on discipline at the end: heat briefly, serve straight away. Anyone who keeps the wild garlic on the board rather than throwing it into the pot too soon will taste the difference in the very first spoonful.
