Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup

This Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup is the perfect cozy comfort food for when you're feeling under the weather. It's packed with roasted garlic and veggies!

This Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup is the perfect thing to eat when you’re feeling under the weather. It’s jam-packed with veggies and has a soothing, cozy broth that’ll warm you right up.

This recipe is based on the classic chicken noodle soup that a lot of us ate when we were sick as kids. But instead of adding a vegan chicken substitute, we’re simply going with lots of good veggies and roasted garlic.

a bowl of roasted garlic noodle soup, full of fusilli pasta, chopped kale, carrots, celery, and onion

Ingredients for Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup

  • Oil or vegan butter to sauté the vegetables.
  • Roasted garlic. This is the star of the show. We’re going to use a TON of garlic in this recipe, but first, we’re going to roast it to maximize the flavor.
  • Onion, carrot, and celery. This classic mirepoix is going to give the soup its flavor base, as well as bulk it up with healthy goodness.
  • Lacinato kale. You can really use any kind of greens you want in this soup (including curly kale or spinach). I like the Lacinato kale because it’s nice and sturdy and won’t fall apart or get mushy while it sits in the broth.
  • Chicken-style vegetable broth. You can use any kind of vegetable stock in this soup, but I use chicken-style bouillon to get it as close to tasting like classic chicken noodle soup as I can.
  • Herbs. I like to use fresh herbs when I can, but you can use dried herbs if that’s what you have on hand. See the section below for more information about dry vs. fresh herbs.
  • Lemon juice. A little bit of lemon juice at the very end of the cooking process goes a long way. It brightens the soup up and adds a tiny bit of freshness to the flavor.
  • Pasta (Noodles). Chicken noodle soup is usually made with egg noodles, which obviously aren’t vegan. Instead, we’re subbing in regular pasta, which works just fine!

Roasting the Garlic

“Roasted garlic” is in the name of the soup, so let’s talk about how we make it. It’s actually quite a simple process, so don’t be intimidated!

  1. Chop the top off of your head of garlic, exposing the cloves inside.
  2. Drizzle olive oil generously over the cloves, allowing the oil to seep in (really let it get in there).
  3. Salt the top of the garlic and wrap in tin foil. You can also use a small baking dish with a lid for this step. Doing this allows the garlic to basically steam itself, giving it that luscious, creamy texture.
  1. Roast at 400°F for 35-45 minutes, until cloves are soft and caramelized.
  2. Now you can either squeeze the bulb to extract all of the cloves, or use a utensil to pry them out one by one. Either way, it can kind of be a labor of love getting all of that garlicky goodness out of the skin. But it’s worth it!

This method for roasting garlic can be used for so many more recipes than just Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup. Try experimenting using it instead of normal minced garlic in other dishes! You can even just spread it straight on some good toasted bread with a bit of flaky salt on top. Mmmmm…

How to Make Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup

After your garlic is all roasted and ready to go, the rest of this recipe super simple and straightforward.

  1. Sauté onion, celery, and carrot in olive oil or vegan butter until tender.
  2. Add in broth and let simmer.
  3. Prepare your herb sachet and nestle it into the soup. If you’re using dried herbs, you can add them in now.
  1. In a separate pot, prepare your pasta according to the package instructions. Make sure to only cook the pasta until al dente.
  2. Extract your roasted garlic from the skin and finely mince it, essentially turning it into a paste. Now you can stir that paste into the soup.
  3. Add in your kale, allowing it to cook for a few minutes to soften.
  1. When the kale has softened, squeeze in your lemon juice. Taste and add salt and black pepper to your liking.
  2. Scoop some pasta into a serving bowl and ladle your soup over top.

Sarah’s Recipe Notes

Best Ways to Roast Garlic

The easiest way to roast garlic is by using the tin foil method mentioned above. It’s super convenient and most people have tin foil lying around their kitchen. However, there’s a slightly more sustainable option if you have the proper equipment.

If you have a small, oven-safe dish with a lid, you can use that instead! I like to use my tiny little Dutch oven, which works perfectly for roasting a few heads of garlic at a time. (It’s also very aesthetically pleasing, which is an added bonus.)

This method will work just as well as the tin foil, steaming the garlic inside. And you won’t have to throw anything in the trash when you’re done!

Cooking the Pasta

I know that cooking pasta might seem like the easiest thing in the world to some people, but don’t overlook it in this recipe!

Firstly, you’ll want to boil the pasta in heavily salted water. This is always a good practice whenever you’re making pasta, as it just adds a little bit of extra flavor inside the noodles. (We love to season at every step when we can!)

Secondly, you want to make sure you don’t overcook the pasta. If you cook it how you’d usually cook pasta, it’ll end up being overdone and soggy in the soup.

Fortunately, this is super easy to avoid. All you have to do is cook it a little extra al dente and it will end up perfect in your Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup!

Using an Herb Sachet (Sachet d’épices)

I like to use an herb sachet to infuse the soup with the flavor of the herbs without having them still floating around in there when it’s time to eat. I’ll admit that it seems little bit fancy, but it works so well!

To achieve this, you can use cheesecloth or something similar. I like to use a reusable cloth coffee filter that I just tie with a bit of cooking twine. Easy peasy!

You can also use a tea steeper (either reusable or disposable), since this technique is basically like making herb tea in your soup. Just stuff your fresh herbs inside, close it up, and drop it in the pot!

If you don’t want to bother with a sachet or tea steeper, feel free to just throw in your fresh herbs whole. They will disintegrate a little bit and you might not be able to fish them out before eating, but some people don’t mind.

Fresh Herbs vs. Dry Herbs

If you don’t want to or can’t find fresh herbs, dried will work just fine as well! I happened to have a bunch of leftover herbs from holiday cooking, so I just used those.

However, using dried herbs are a bit different than using fresh ones. Dried herbs are much more potent since they’ve had the moisture removed from them, shrinking them in size.

The standard conversion is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs = 1 teaspoon dried herbs or 1/2 teaspoon ground dried herbs.

That means for this Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup, you’d use:

  • 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried ground sage

Of course, feel free to add conservatively and adjust as you go.

Storage and Reheating

Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup can be refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. It’s super simple to reheat on the stove over medium-low heat, or in the microwave.

Just be sure to store your pasta in a separate container so they don’t get soggy. Then, you can reheat the soup and pasta at the same time.

More Delicious Vegan Soups

Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup

This Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup is the perfect cozy comfort food for when you're feeling under the weather. It's packed with roasted garlic and veggies!
4.5 from 29 votes
Print Pin Rate
Author: Sarah Sullivan

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegan butter
  • 1 medium white or yellow onion diced
  • 2 carrots peeled and chopped
  • 2 stalks celery chopped
  • 2 heads roasted garlic mashed into a paste (recipe follows)
  • 6 cups chicken-style vegetable broth see notes for recommendations
  • 2 cups chopped kale or sub any of your favorite greens
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2-3 sprigs fresh herbs of choice, such as rosemary, thyme, sage etc. or sub dried herbs (see notes)
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • pasta or noodles of choice prepared al dente according to package instructions

Roasted Garlic

  • 2 heads garlic
  • olive oil
  • salt

Instructions

Prepare the Roasted Garlic

  • Preheat oven to 400°F.
  • Peel off the outer, papery layers of skin from the garlic.
  • With the bulb still intact, chop off the tops of the heads of garlic, exposing the cloves inside.
  • Place garlic heads in tin foil or small baking dish.
  • Liberally drizzle olive oil over the garlic, allowing oil to seep in between the cloves. Season with salt.
  • Enclose garlic with tin foil or put lid on baking dish.
  • Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until soft and caramelized. Exact time will vary depending on size of garlic. I like to start checking for color at 35 minutes. If it looks a little pale, wrap it back up and bake in additional 10 minute increments until roasted.

Cook the Pasta

  • Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Be cautious to not overcook or you'll end up with mushy pasta inside the soup.

Making the Soup

  • In a large pot, heat olive oil or vegan butter over medium-high heat.
  • Add in celery, carrot, and onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes, or until tender.
  • Pour in vegetable broth and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to low/medium-low to bring to a simmer.
  • Add in your herbs, either fresh or dried.
  • Extract your roasted garlic from its skin. You can do this by either squeezing the skin so the garlic oozes out or by using a utensil to pry each clove out one by one. Just make sure to not leave any garlicky goodness behind!
  • Mince your roasted garlic finely, turning it into a paste. Add it to the soup.
  • Add in your kale, cooking until tender (about 5 minutes, or longer depending on how soft you like it).
  • Squeeze in fresh lemon juice, fish out the herb sachet (if you used one), and turn off the heat.
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Serve over top cooked pasta and enjoy!

Video

Notes

  • I use about 8oz (half a box) of pasta for this recipe and usually have leftovers that we don’t use in the soup. It’s really up to you how noodle-y you want your soup! I’d say make a bunch of pasta and worst case scenario is that you end up with leftover noodles.
Did you make this recipe?We’d love for you to leave a review on the website! You can also share a photo on IG and tag @sarahsvegankitchen_ or #sarahsvegankitchen.

12 Comments

  1. 1 star
    This recipe was incredibly disappointing. I am not sure of the development and testing process but the roasted garlic in this soup is completely over powering. It ruined the delicious vegetable broth and completely clashed with the other vegetables and notes in the soup. The garlic should have been sautéed with the onion instead of oven roasted. The Smokey flavour was all your could taste and rendered the soup inedible. Waste of time and ingredients.

  2. 5 stars
    Absolutely delicious. I only had one head of garlic and dried seasonings so that’s what I used. 10/10 would make again.

  3. 5 stars
    My fiance and I woke up this morning with head colds and I remembered seeing this recipe in my feed a few days earlier. We are a garlic loving household, we added a third head of garlic to the batch and it was amazing! Aside from that, the only other modification we made was adding in a deseeded and diced habanero pepper to help clear our sinuses. Absolutely delicious, really hit the spot.

  4. 5 stars
    This soup was incredible and I absolutely devoured this soup. Just beautiful flavours that soothed my soul and was something I had never tried before or ventured into, so am grateful to have come across this. Thank you for sharing this recipe and would definitely recommend, especially if you suffering from a cold etc, this just hits the spot! 🙂

  5. 4 stars
    Nice soup!! I absolutely loved the broth and how it tasted with the roasted garlic! And the noodles were a really nice touch 🙂

    • 5 stars
      I have never left a review on a recipe blog, but this soup touched my soul so deeply that I had to say something. I had covid recently and had to quarantine by myself (with my cats) in my apartment. It was brutal. This soup pulled me through. The perfection of this roasted garlic masterpiece was a gentle hug from the universe, reminding me that there is still beauty in the world. I ate it all in two days. Then I made more. I emerged from my dismal cave reeking of garlic and ready to take on the world. Added a little soy sauce for some pizzazz and some white beans for protein. Thank you <3

  6. 5 stars
    We love garlic in our family. When I saw this soup I knew I had to make it. I used spinach. I added a couple of tsp of vegan Hoisin sauce and sprinkled green onions into to my bowl when I dished it out. I used ramen noodles to make it more of a Pho. I also used 3 small heads of garlic, it was hard to find good sized bulbs.

  7. 3 stars
    The soup was fine. The garlic was quite subtle. Above me someone is complaining that it was overpowering, but that wasn’t at all the case with me. Could be another kind or garlic: mine was completely white. They say the more purple it has, the stronger it is. So mine weren’t strong to begin with.

  8. 5 stars
    Amazing! I didn’t add any garlic but, I did add mushrooms. I’m eating this all winter. Thank you for the recipe <3!!

  9. 5 stars
    Thanks. my go to is vegetable soup.

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