Creamy Green Garlic and Fennel Soup

Ever since I received my Hamilton Beach 2-speed Hand Blender from CSN Stores, I have been dying to make soup. But with the weather in California heating up, I knew whatever I decided on would have to be on the lighter side. So when my latest produce delivery included green garlic and fennel bulbs, I KNEW what I wanted to try.

Green garlic season is now, so if you want to try this recipe, take advantage of the season before it is gone! Green garlic is harvested before the garlic cloves have begun to develop. The resulting plant looks almost like a scallion. It is milder in garlic flavor and when it is cooked, it sweetens and gets a unique complex flavor which needs minimal seasoning. Which is why it was perfect for this soup!

I have previously written about fennel when creating a simple salad last year. I used two fennel bulbs that are smaller in size but you can probably get away with one larger bulb. I only used the white of the bulb, and a bit of the fern for garnish.

The soup stays light, but creamy, through the use of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I use Blue Diamond Almond Breeze) and the blending of the vegetables to create the thicker soup. I used my new Hamilton 2-speed hand blender which allowed me to blend the soup in the stockpot. It was quick and easy to use and clean which was a nice change from having to pour soups into my blender in batches. Letting the soup sit allows a natural thickening to occur and it reheated well for later meals.

Green Garlic and Fennel Soup
Serves 4

4 Green Garlic stalks, diced (include light green as well as white part of the stalk)
2 small fennel bulbs, slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 cup water
sea salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a stock pot and add garlic and fennel. Toss garlic and fennel in oil for about a minute before reducing the heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper and cover, letting the garlic and fennel sweat in the covered pot. When the garlic and fennel have begun to caramelize, add almond milk and water. Stir and cover. Let simmer for twenty minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and using an immersion or hand blender, blend the ingredients together. The soup should be slightly chunky unless you want a smoother soup. Let sit for five minutes before serving, or store and reheat later.

Nutritional Information (per serving): 63 calories, 5 grams of fat, 1.75 grams of fiber, 1 gram of protein

Green Garlic

Simple Fennel Salad

Fennel was a vegetable I was alway afraid of. I mean, look at it! It has this big white bulb on the bottom and these light and fluffy tufts of green on top. How would one prepare such a unique vegetable?

As someone who loves black licorice, I was excited to try this vegetable because I heard it was also known as "Sweet Anise." But as I learned from Howard Yoon at NPR, "Anise is a pungent pint-sized herb, while 'sweet anise' — or fennel — is a hearty vegetable with a thick, bulbous base and celery-like stems that grow upward to 5 feet tall. It has a sweeter, more delicate flavor than anise."

However, if you love that thick Anise flavor, save the fronds/ferns that grow at the top of the plant. Yoon explains, "Though all parts of the Florence fennel are edible, the stalks tend to be fibrous, like celery, while the fronds can have an anise intensity that might turn off some people. The thick white leaves of the base offer the most versatile use. When cooked, the leaves become supple, the same way onions lose their firmness, and retain only a faint hint of anise."

I began first with roasting as this is how I try a number of vegetables for the first time because of the ease of preparation and the carmelization of the sugars in the vegetable. However, I had another teacher share with me her love of raw fennel and I had to try it. Now every chance I have to score some fennel, I make this salad.


Simple Fennel Salad.

1 Fennel bulb with ferns still attached
Unfiltered olive oil (or your favorite olive oil)
Fresh ground black pepper

Wash the bulb thouroughly and remove the stalks with the ferns. Set aside for use later. Slice the bulb into rings and place on your plate. Drizzle oil and sprinkle black pepper to taste. Add fern tufts for color and added flavor profile. This last part is optional depending on how much you love Anise. Yum!

One cup of sliced fennel has only 27 calories, 2.7 grams of fiber and 1 gram of protein.