Roasted Garlic and Shallot Potato Soup with Paremsan Croutons

I soup and am really liking making different kinds of soup. Soup on a cold day just seems to make everything better. Making your own soup is much more satisfying than heating up a can that was sitting in your pantry. This is also coming from someone who once had a soup client in the advertising days.

This soup was not my favorite, but Mike seemed to really like it. It is quite a time intense recipe. I should not have tried to make this one on a night after work. It would have been better on a weekend when there is more time. I do love the croutons for the soup.

Soup
5 whole garlic heads, unpeeled
olive oil
salt
pepper
10 shallots, unpeeled
2 cups of chopped onion
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups of chicken broth (to make this a vegetarian dish, use vegetable broth)
2 cups cubed, peeled potato
thyme (I used dried thyme)
1 cup 2% milk

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Remove white papery skins from garlic heads (do not peel or separate cloves). Place garlic in a shallow roasting pan. Drizzle olive oil (about 1 tbspn) over garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.
3. Add shallots to pan. Drizzle oil (about 1 tbspn) over shallots; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and bake at 400F for 25 minutes or until garlic and shallots are tender and browned. Cool. Squeeze garlic to extract pulp; peel shallots. Set pulp and shallots aside. Do take the time to let the shallots and garlic cool, they are hot!
4. Heat oil (about 1.5 tbspn) in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion to pan. Cover and cook 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Add garlic pulp, shallots and wine. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered, 5 minutes.
   
5. Stir in broth, potato, and thyme (about a teaspoon); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, ad simmer 10 minutes or until potato is tender. Cool slightly. Place half of mixture into a blender (leave and opening in the lid and cover with a paper towel). Blend until smooth, pour into a large bowl and blend the rest of the mixture.
   
6. Add soup back to pan; stir in milk, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat about 5 minutes or until heating through.

Croutons
1/2 inch thick slices of French bread
Cooking spray
Parmesan cheese

1. Heat oven to 400F.
2. Place slices on baking sheet. Coat tops of bread with cooking spray.
   
3. Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 3 minutes or until cheese melts.