Roasted Garlic and Cauliflower Soup

Preheat your oven to 400 F.

You will roast your garlic first. Cut the bottoms off of the garlic heads, exposing the cloves beneath. Peel as much of the skin off without the garlic falling apart. It is OK if there is some skin left on. Place each head in a muffin tin. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast at 400 F for 45 minutes to an hour (or until the garlic is browned and soft). Remove from oven and let it cool substantially before handling it.

Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, remove the cloves from the head. At this point, it should be fairly easy. Just squeeze from the top of the head and most of them should just pop out. Set the cloves aside for later.

Now you will prepare your soup. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrots. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Add the chopped cauliflower and the roasted garlic. Toss to combine, lower the heat to medium-low and cover the pot. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until the cauliflower has softened.

Uncover after 25 minutes and add the white wine. Increase the heat on the stove to medium. Scrape any brown bits that may have collected on the bottom of the pan and allow the wine to decrease by half. Add the vegetable broth and herbes de Provence. Season again with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, melt the rest of the butter (6 tablespoons) over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk to form a roux. Cook for 2-3 minutes to cook out all of the raw flour. Add the whole milk and heavy cream and whisk again to combine. Cook for 3-4 minutes more, remove from heat and set aside.

Once your soup has simmered for 20 minutes, transfer 5-6 ladles full of your soup to the pitcher of a blender. Blend until smooth and then transfer back to the Dutch oven. Stir to combine. Add the milk/flour mixture to the soup and stir again to combine. Cook for 5-6 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the soup to thicken.

Add the cheddar cheese and cream cheese and cook for 8 minutes more until the cheeses have melted. Keep warm on the stove until you are ready to serve.

Serve hot and garnish with green onions. Enjoy!