This Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup is the perfect thing to cook up when you’re feeling under the weather — or really any time you’re craving something cozy and nostalgic. Roasted garlic purĂ©e gives the broth a deliciously complex, ultra savory flavor that’ll have you going back for seconds.
Based on the classic chicken noodle soup I remember from my childhood sick days, this soup is as deeply nourishing as it is flavorful. I hope it brings you as much comfort as it has brought me.
Ingredients for Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup
- Oil or vegan butter to sauté the vegetables.
- Roasted garlic. The star of the show! This recipe calls for two whole heads of garlic. If it seems excessive — don’t worry; roasting will mellow out the flavor and add some sweetness and complexity. You won’t get the same intense bite you get from raw or stir-fried garlic.
- Onion, carrot, and celery. Mirepoix, for that classic “chicken noodle” flavor base. Add as much as you like to bulk up the soup with healthy goodness.
- A handful of greens. Optional, but I like it to add some extra color. Spinach or lacinato kale are my faves, but add any kind of leafy green you like.
- Vegetable broth. You can use regular vegetable stock in this soup, or (if you want to boost the umami), use water and a good vegan chicken-style bouillon. I like the vegetarian one from Better Than Bouillon.
- Herbs. I like a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme, and sage. Fresh herbs make this broth taste extra special, in my opinion, but dried herbs will work too if that’s what you have on hand. See the section below for more information about dry vs. fresh herbs.
- Lemon juice. A squeeze of lemon juice at the very end of the cooking process goes a long way. It brightens the soup up and adds some extra freshness to the flavor.
- Pasta (Noodles). Use any kind of noodles you have in your pantry. I like fusilli when I’m going for a classic chicken noodle soup vibe (because they’re similar to egg noodles but vegan). But sometimes I enjoy tiny pasta shapes like orzo, ditalini, or stelline when I want to feed my inner child.
Roasting the Garlic
Roasting garlic is actually quite a simple process, so don’t be intimidated! It just takes a little time and patience.
- Peel off the outer, papery skin from the garlic. Then chop the top off of your head of garlic, exposing the cloves inside.
- Drizzle olive oil generously over the cloves, allowing it to seep in between the cloves (really let it get in there).
- Salt the top of the garlic and wrap tightly in tin foil. You can also use a small baking dish with a lid for this step — preferably a nice heavy one so it distributes heat evenly. The key is that we need the garlic sealed in completely so it doesn’t dry out and burn while roasting. It essentially steams as it roasts, giving it that luscious, creamy texture.
- Roast at 400°F for until the cloves are very soft and lightly caramelized. Exact time will definitely vary depending on your oven, but I recommend taking a peek at the 45 minute mark. From there, add on extra time 5 minutes at a time until the perfect consistency is achieved.
- Let the garlic rest on the counter for awhile until it’s cool enough to handle.
- Now you can either squeeze the bulb from the base to extract all of the cloves, or use a utensil to dig 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.
- Sauté onion, celery, and carrot in olive oil or vegan butter until tender.
- Add in broth. Gradually bring it up to a simmer.
- In the meantime, prepare your herb bundle/sachet and nestle it into the soup. Or, if you’re using dried ground herbs, you can add them in now.
- Let the soup simmer with the herbs and veggies for as long as you like. Give it at least 20 minutes (so the veggies have a chance to get tender). But usually I let mine simmer on low, covered, for an hour or two to really let the herbs infuse.
- When you’re almost ready to eat, add in 6 oz dry pasta of choice and let it simmer until tender. (This usually takes around 10-12 minutes but it will depend on your pasta shape.)
- In the meantime, extract the roasted garlic from the skin. I like to blend the garlic with 1 cup veggie broth so it’s perfectly smooth. If you don’t want to dirty your blender (who can blame you?), you can just mince it into a paste.
- Once the pasta is almost done, go ahead and remove the herb sachet (if you used one). Stir in the roasted garlic, along with a handful of fresh greens (like spinach or kale). Simmer until the pasta is done cooking and the greens are wilted.
- Squeeze in fresh lemon juice and (optionally) a few tablespoons of fresh chopped herbs like parsley or dill.
- Enjoy!
Sarah’s Recipe Notes
Using an Herb Sachet (Sachet d’Ă©pices)
An herb sachet makes it easy to infuse the broth with the flavor of fresh herbs, and then remove them before serving. I’ll admit that it seems little bit fancy, but it works so well, especially with herbs that have stems that are a little tough to chew (like rosemary, sage, or thyme).
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. You can tie them up into a little bouquet with twine for easy removal (or not). Or, you can give them a chop and add them in if you don’t mind the texture.
Fresh Herbs vs. Dry Herbs
If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, you can substitute in dried. However, note that dried herbs are usually more potent. 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 about 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, and 1/4 teaspoon dried ground sage. However, I recommend adding in a little bit at a time and adjusting 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. However, the pasta tends to get a little mushy the longer it sits.
If you plan to have leftovers and would like to keep the noodles from getting soggy, I recommend cooking them separately from the soup. Simply cook them according to package directions until al dente. To serve, just add noodles to a bowl and ladle the roasted garlic soup over the top.
More Delicious Vegan Soups
Roasted Garlic Noodle Soup
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegan butter
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 carrots peeled and sliced
- 2 stalks celery sliced
- 10 cups vegetable broth divided
- 1 handful baby spinach or kale chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 2-3 sprigs fresh herbs of choice such as rosemary, thyme, or sage
- 6 ounces dry pasta of choice I like fusilli or bowties
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice from about half a lemon
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley or dill optional
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 on a sheet of tin foil, or in a small, heavy baking dish.
- Liberally drizzle olive oil over the garlic, allowing oil to seep in between the cloves. Season with salt.
- Wrap garlic securely with tin foil and place on a baking sheet (just in case oil drips). If using a heavy baking dish, cover with a lid or tinfoil.
- Roast until soft and lightly caramelized. Exact time will vary depending on size of garlic. I like to start checking for color at 45 minutes. If it looks a little pale, wrap it back up and bake in additional 5 minute increments until it reaches the perfect texture.
- Remove and let it cool.
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 the onion is translucent.
- Pour in vegetable broth, preserving 1 cup for later. Let it come to a boil.
- In the meantime, gather a few sprigs of fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, and sage. Tie them with kitchen twine so you can easily remove them later. (You can also make an herb sachet with a piece of cheesecloth if you like.) If you'd like to sub in dried ground herbs, see the notes.
- Place the herb bundle in the soup along with bay leaves. Once the soup comes to a boil, reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 hours.
- When the veggies are as tender as you like, add in your dried pasta. Let it simmer until very al dente — usually about 8-10 minutes depending on your pasta shape. Make sure to stir it every now and then so the pasta doesn't stick together (or to the bottom of the pot).
- In the meantime, extract the cloves of roasted garlic from the skins. Place the roasted garlic in a blender along with 1 cup of vegetable broth and blend until smooth. (If you don't want to use a blender, you can also simply chop/mash the garlic into a paste.)
- Once the pasta is almost done, pour in the roasted garlic broth (or add the roasted garlic paste with 1 cup veggie broth). Add in your handful of greens. Let the soup keep simmering (just a few extra minutes) until the pasta is fully cooked and the greens are wilted.
- Remove the herb bundle/sachet. Squeeze in fresh lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley/dill. Add extra salt and pepper to taste.
- Enjoy immediately!
Absolutely delicious. I only had one head of garlic and dried seasonings so that’s what I used. 10/10 would make again.
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.
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! 🙂
Nice soup!! I absolutely loved the broth and how it tasted with the roasted garlic! And the noodles were a really nice touch 🙂
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
This might be the best review in the history of recipe reviews! Thank you so much. We hope you’re feeling better!!
Definitely am thanks to this soup lol. Thank you for all that you do 🙂
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.
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.
Amazing! I didn’t add any garlic but, I did add mushrooms. I’m eating this all winter. Thank you for the recipe <3!!
Thanks. my go to is vegetable soup.
This soup is SO GOOD. It reminds me of the classic chicken noodle soup I used to eat as a kid, but with the added bonus of the roasted garlic flavor. The garlic melds with the other flavors perfectly, and when the garlic is roasted properly, it’s not overpowering in anyway. One of my favorites!
Super tasty soup that’s simple and nourishing! Thank you for all that you do! 🙂
I made this soup last night and it turned out fantastic. I was nervous about an over-garlicky taste, so I only added 1/2 at first. It wasn’t overpowering at all so I added the whole recipes worth of garlic and it was perfect! I made sure garlic was browning before removing it from the oven.
I added 1/4c nutritional yeast and some mushroom powder for added yummy and nutrients. (I rarely make a recipe without immediately modifying it. Why!?)
It was thoroughly delicious and will make it again:)
Thank You!
We LOVE this soup! We’ve been making it almost weekly since December and are actually having it tonight!
The roasted garlic is, without a doubt, our favorite part of this soup. When we roast the garlic, we add a small splash of soy sauce to the garlic and lower the salt amount. It’s such an amazing flavor and pairs so amazingly with the other ingredients.
We have made this for other people and have shared this recipe so many times, because it’s just so delicious!
Just made this soup. Tasted very good. The only issue that I had was that I didn’t put my fresh spring of rosemary in a cheesecloth. Perhaps my rosemary was dry, because many of the rosemary needles came off into the soup. I had to go through and remove them. But you did list it as an option in the recipe. Will make this soup again.