Let’s get this out the way right from the start. You are probably wondering why there is a wild garlic soup recipe on your favourite mountain bike website. Science and statistics are the answers. Stick with me here on this.
A good Saturday afternoon ride will involve perhaps 5 skids, 2 puddle jumps, 3 unplanned dismounts, 4 sprints to the corner, two pastry-based snacks, zero mountains, some nuts, 2 cakes and at least 2 post ride beers. But you are riding only one bike. So, are you really a mountain biker, where was the mountain? Statistically speaking you have actually just spent the afternoon “pieing”. What’s more have you ever tried riding all day with no food? It simply doesn’t work. Not possible. Now that we have all got over that… let’s move on to…
Charlie’s Wild Garlic Soup Recipe
This is a great recipe after a nice rural day on the bike as most of the ingredients can be found, foraged or liberated on your journey. The egg, bread and onions can all be found in the Great British honesty boxes, along with fresh flapjacks and Victoria sponge if you get lucky.
The wild garlic you will find with your nose. It has a very strong garlic smell, and can be found in the spring, on shaded wooded hillsides. The leaves and flowers are both edible. I once bivi’d in a place known as “Garlic Woods”, and my kit stunk for months. On the plus side no Goths or vampires bothered me for a while.
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Grown up bit.
Please be cautious when picking wild garlic. It’s OK to use regular supermarket garlic and some stinging nettles as a substitute. It works just fine. Don’t just eat anything you find in the countryside, some of it will hurt you, and some of it will try and kill you. Pick your garlic away from trail (aka away from dog poop) and give it a good wash before use.
Wild Garlic Soup Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Onions or shallots finely chopped
- A posey of wild garlic leaves, washed and shredded
- Wild garlic Flowers for garnish
- 1 egg per serving
- Some nice bread
- Nice cheese
- Salt and pepper
- Chicken or veg stock cube
How much does that all cost?
Less than a quarter of an inner tube. And no one wants a fraction of an inner tube. Basically, with wild garlic soup you can feed a person for the cost of an egg, a slice of cheese, some old bread and stuff you have in the cupboard anyway. It’s a flipping cost of living cracker. So, get on your £6,000 bike, throw on your ultralight jacket and carbon shoes, and go find some cheap food in the woods.
Method
- Chop up the onion and gently sauté with the onions in olive oil until soft, but not brown.
- Add the shredded wild garlic leaves and give them a moment to shrink.
- Add the stock, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Make some cheesey croutons. Cut some slices of bread. Splash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then top with cheese and place in the oven at around 180°c for a while, until the bread becomes a big cheesy crispy crouton.
- Carefully add the eggs and poach them in the soup, until they have a soft runny yolk.
- To serve, ladle the soup (leaving the eggs in the pan) into the bowl. Scoop out one egg at a time, and gently place in the soup. Add a few wild garlic flowers to garnish (they taste really intense).
- And now folks… it’s soup showtime. If everything went to plan your diners should be able to nudge their egg, causing the yolk to break like a glorious yellow tubeless failure of yumminess. A brilliant bit of food theatre.
Top Tips
- Blend up the leaves with olive oil to make pesto and then freeze in ice cube trays. You now have a year round supply. One cube will bring your pasta alive.
- Throw other stuff in. It works well with courgettes, mushrooms, chicken, prawns and white fish.
So, Singletrackers. Keep your nose peeled on your next ride, pick some garlic, give this recipe a go, and let me know how you got on with a comment below.
