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I want to discuss green garlic again.

In one of the greatest cookbooks ever published, Chez Panisse Cooking, Alice Waters and Paul Bertolli write: "Garlic is commonly used as a mature plant when the bulb containing many cloves has formed. Green garlic is the same plant pulled from the ground at a much earlier stage, before the bulb forms and when the plant resembles a leek, with a stalk about 1/2 inch in diameter.”

That quote was probably my first introduction to green garlic. Though it may have been years later that I actually got my hands on any. Because even in Los Angeles, where we have year round access to the greatest produce in the world green garlic is only just now becoming fairly common at the springtime Farmers Market. To make this point I’ll quote Alice Waters once again: “Until recently, green garlic never appeared in the market and was largely unrecognized by cooks. The quality of green garlic is unique and of great use in the kitchen”.

So you see green garlic is not exactly a new ingredient to me, but it’s not exactly a staple in my life either. It took me a while but reading her words has made me a little bit obsessed with green garlic at the moment. So I am bringing it back for another look. This time in a soup. I have much to learn and Alice Waters may be the perfect teacher.

In the past, when I'd see green garlic I'd usually pick up and bunch and use it to start all kinds of dishes by chopping it up and sautéing it as part of a mirepoix like base. I honestly did not think much about it because I typically used it whenever I was throwing together somnething I was making up as I went along.

But recently I stopped myself. Turned off the autopilot and decided to taste green garlic, raw and unadorned.  I was impressed and completely agree with Alice Waters that “when cooked it has none of the hot, pungent qualities of fresh garlic cloves. Its flavor, although unmistakably associated with the mature form, is much milder."

Although I did not say it at the time these quotes from Chez Panisse Cooking were what inspired me to choose green garlic as the subject of a Market Matters post a few weeks ago. I made a Green Garlic and Goat Cheese Soufflé. It was the first time I had ever let green garlic have a center role in something I was making. But it won’t be the last.

Because today the sweetly mild notes of green garlic once again come front and center. Only this time I am going to use another quote from this revered cookbook and follow the advice of Alice herself.  Because Alice believes that "the flavor of green garlic is most clearly captured in a pureed soup made with new potatoes and finished with cream."

Her version is close in concept to a pureed leek and potato soup. She substitutes the green garlic for the leeks and uses waxy red potatoes. The same potatoes I prefer to use when I make Leek and Potato Soup myself.

I can imagine how divine her soup must be. But I want to tread some new ground here. So I am going to make a soup that brings the sweetness of green garlic to the front. But I am going to make a much more rustic soup. I’ll use new potatoes, but I am going to use a creamy yellow-fleshed new potato. The skin of new potatoes is practically non-existent so I am not going to peel my potatoes. This will add to the rustic quality that will be further enhanced by roughly pureeing the soup rather than going for a smoother more silky texture.

I am going to add a touch of cream as does Alice Waters, but I am going to add mine after the cooking, and it really is going to be ‘just a touch'. I think the addition of just 2 T of fat at the end will bind the flavors in my soup without giving the impression of a cream-based soup.

Lastly I am going to swirl a couple of de-veined sorrel leaves into the hot bowl. Not enough to flavor the broth, but the bright sour bite will be an unexpected touch and will keep your palate focused on the all the flavors in the bowl. Or so I think.

Green Garlic Soup with Sorrel serves 6 CLICK here for a printable recipe