Roasted Garlic Soup and Coffee Panna Cotta with Ganache

I had made garlic soup before with the recipe out of Southern Living Cookbook, and it was absolutely amazing. It had potato in it though, so that's a no-go for me now. After sifting through recipes, I found that either potato or onion was used to give the soup body. I chose one with onion, and it turned out delicious. I don't think I cooked the onion long enough because when I pureed it with the other ingredients, it didn't get all the way smooth. There were teeny-tiny bits of onion left in my soup. So I'd knock a few points off of optimum texture. However, taste wise it was amazing- creamy, garlic-y, and onion-y. I think, to remedy the texture issue, next time I'll puree the roasted garlic and caramelized onion together by themselves, without the broth. That way I can get a super-smooth puree before adding the broth.

Roasted Garlic Soup

Ingredients:

3 heads of garlic, peeled + 1 head of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil or grapeseed oil (any oil that can withstand high heat is fine. No EVOO)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sliced onions, sliced (about 1 large onion)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme)
3 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. lemon juice

My directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel about 3 heads worth of garlic and separate into cloves. Cover a lipped baking sheet with foil and spread cloves fairly evenly. Pour over the oil and coat garlic. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over garlic. Cover the garlic with more foil and bake about 20 minutes, or until cloves are slightly browned and aromatic.

In a skillet, cook onion in the butter and thyme until onions are translucent and soft. 

In a blender/food processor (I used the largest container that came with my ninja) puree roasted garlic, the rest of the fresh garlic (that has been peeled as well), and the onion until smooth. Add in the veggie broth and pulse until incorporated. Transfer soup to a pot and add lemon juice, cream, and Parmesan. Simmer about 20 minutes. Serve with shredded Parmesan on top.

Original Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the top(s) off of your head(s) of garlic and separate out 25 cloves, making sure each clove has an end chopped off (this will help with squeezing out the roasted garlic later on).
Place the 25 cloves in a small glass baking dish, pour the 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the top, and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for about 45 minutes, until cloves are light golden brown and very tender. Remove from oven and cool.
Squeeze the roasted garlic between your fingertips to release the garlic and discard the peel. Set roasted garlic aside.
In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and thyme; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add both the roasted garlic and the 15 peeled raw garlic cloves and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes.
Add vegetable stock and, continuing over medium heat, bring the soup just to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until garlic is very tender. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Using an immersion blender or working in batches with a blender, puree soup until smooth.
Return soup to pan and stir in heavy whipping cream. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese into each bowl and ladle the soup over the top. Squeeze one lemon wedge over each bowl and sprinkle with additional Parmesan if desired. Serve.

*recipe from kitchentreaty.com 

You can try it both ways and see which way you like best, but I feel that my way is quicker. It takes longer to peel all the garlic, but you can buy already peeled fresh garlic cloves-which would save you about an hour of agonizing peeling. Don't use jarred garlic, it doesn't have enough flavor.

Coffee Panna Cotta with Ganache

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vanilla or caramel Da Vinci sugar free syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda, or to taste
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder or instant coffee granules
Pinch salt
Chocolate Glaze, optional (not suitable for induction)

Chocolate Glaze:
5-6 oz. of sugar free chocolate (I used a mix of Russel Stovers' chocolate truffles and their solid dark chocolate)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream

*recipe from Linda's Low Carb

Put the syrup in a shallow bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface and let stand 5 minutes to soften. Microwave the gelatin for 30 seconds on HIGH or just until it comes to a light boil. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

In a 4-cup glass measure or bowl, bring 1/2 cup of the heavy cream to a boil in the microwave. Stir in the Splenda, coffee powder and salt. Add the gelatin and stir well. Add the remaining 1 cup cream and stir well. Pour into 4 dessert dishes; chill at least 2-3 hours or until set. Once it has set up, make the chocolate glaze.

To make the chocolate glaze, put the chocolate, butter and cream in a small bowl. Microwave on 40% power about 30 seconds trying not to let it boil. Stir until completely smooth, microwaving a few more seconds if needed. Divide the glaze among the dessert dishes and smooth it to cover the top of each one. Eat at once or chill to let the glaze set up.

This was so good my mother didn't believe it was sugar free. The panna cotta is fluffy yet rich, and the ganache is simply decadent. Make it. Make a double freakin' batch cause you're gonna want more, trust me. I think there's a lot of potential to change this up. You could leave out the coffee and instead add any sort of fruit extract, or simply not have any other flavor other than vanilla and chocolate. All up to you. If you can find sugar free caramel sauce, or if you get the caramel-flavored syrup instead of the vanilla, you could do banana-caramel chocolate, or raspberry-chocolate, or strawberry-chocolate. The possibilities are endless.