Golden Garlic Soup w/ Fideos {National Garlic Day}

Today is National Garlic Day! Garlic is one of my favorite things. I said it. I love garlic. I even ate it before I was married. A lot of it. Guess I only wanted to attract the kind of guy who likes garlic, himself. Mission accomplished...tee hee. And you how most people hate walking around with the smell of garlic on their hands? I actually like that. Weirdo, huh? It's even better if you've chopped up some lime &/or some ginger along with the garlic....ah, it's like perfume to me. I wanted to all smart and give you a big tutorial on the many uses and benefits of garlic; then I realized how much I have to get done today and I didn't prepare in advance, so I'm just going to show you some fun garlic-lovers cookbooks and share a new soup recipe I came up with this morning.

Golden Garlic Soup w/ Fideos

bfrom the kitchen of girlichef

Olive Oil

onions, small- 3 sliced fairly thin

garlic cloves, peeled- 10 sliced thin

bay leaves, fresh- 2

thyme, fresh- few sprigs

3 1/2 oz. fideo (or broken up vermicelli)

Chicken/Beef/Veg Stock or Broth (your choice or a mixture)- 1 1/2 quarts

salt & pepper- to taste

for garnish:

queso fresco, cut into small cubes

crushed, dried chiles (I used chile de arbol, chopped up in spice grinder)

Put a pot on over medium heat. Add a few swirls of olive oil. Add your sliced onions, stirring occasionally, until golden.

While onions are cooking, peel your garlic.

Slice them up very thin, either by hand or in one of these nifty little mini-mandolin type slicers (love this!).

Add to pot once onions are golden. Continue to cook and stir around a bit, until garlic gets soft and golden. Add your herbs and your fideos. Stir them around for a couple of minutes to toast them.

Add the broth/stock of your choice and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes or so, until fideos are al dente.

Remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Ladle into bowls and garnish with queso fresco and crushed chiles.

This soup is a garlic-lover's dream! Golden, caramelized, earthy garlic and onions along with the underlying heat from the sprinkling of chiles and the salty, just-meltiness (I know, not a word) of the cheese combine so beautifully...I think I'll go have another bowl of it once I'm finished here.

So, Happy Garlic Day to all....vampires and bugs be warned!

I'm also going to try to send this over to Deb for entry in Souper Sundays, even though I'm pretty sure I'm late and won't make it into today's roundup.