Chef John Selick's Award-Winning Roasted Garlic Soup
This weekend, I had the pleasure to be invited back for the second year to judge the Top Chef Grill Off at the Cleveland Garlic Festival. More than just a fun food outing for garlic lovers, the event is the primary fundraising event for North Union Farmers Market, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates 10 “certified producer-only farmers markets” across northeast Ohio.
Besides building a community and providing a launch pad for more than 150 artists, bakers, chefs, and small farms from 16 counties, the network of markets makes healthy foods more accessible and affordable for Clevelanders, including those who rely upon EBT, WIC and Senior coupons to supplement food spending. Learn more about the mission of the Cleveland Garlic Festival.
After scooping up the title in the pasture-raised pork garlic grill off earlier in the day, President of the American Culinary Federation Cleveland Chapter, John Selick, who works as Senior Culinary Manager for Sodexo and University Hospitals stuck around to throw down in the vegetarian grill off. He managed to score a second win (shared in a tie with Vicki Steele of Urban Sweetness) with a layered roasted garlic soup that's a perfect pairing for the wonky weather we experience during these weeks straddling the summer and fall seasons in Northeast Ohio where days start out sweltering and end with a nippy chill at nightfall .
Roasted Garlic Soup
Makes about 3 quarts, or 12 single-cup servings
Ingredients
Soup:
2 Tablespoons of butter
1 small diced onion
1 1/2 cups of roasted garlic cloves
3 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2 pounds of peeled Yukon potatoes
1 1/2 quarts of vegetable stock
1 cup of heavy cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
Relish:
2 ears of Ohio corn
2 red peppers
6 scallions
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
Method
Soup:
In a medium-sized soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat and add the onions. Season with salt and slowly cook until sweated, about 4-5 minutes.
Add the roasted garlic cloves and cook until mashed and flavorful, about one minute.
Add flour to make roux, continuously stirring with a wooden spoon about 4 minutes to cook out the raw flour flavor.
Add the stock in three batches, stirring into to emulsify.
Add potatoes.
Let the pot simmer, stirring frequently in the beginning so the starch doesn’t scorch.
After 20 minutes, test potatoes for tenderness, add the heavy cream and transfer to a blender.
Season to taste.
Relish:
Brush the vegetables with garlic oil.
Grill all the vegetables until nicely charred.
When cool enough to handle, dice vegetables into small pieces.
Fold in chopped parsley and any remaining garlic oil.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Selick, an avid participant in the culinary charity circuit nationwide will be appearing at the fourth annual American Cancer Society Harvesting Hope event at the Cleveland Botanical Garden on September 25 and traveling to participate in the Celebrity Chef Gala for Autism Speaks in New York on October 10.
