This soup is worth the effort because it has a light flavor and a smooth texture. When my grandma made it, the aroma of roasted garlic filled the entire home, in my memory.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 bulb garlic
- ¼ teaspoon olive oil
- 1 (1 1/2 pound) eggplant
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 6 cups chicken broth
- ¾ cup tomato puree
- 1 dash cayenne pepper
- 1 ¼ cups half-and-half
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Peel away any excess paper from the bulb of garlic, then cut the top off to expose the cloves. Rub exposed cloves with 1/4 teaspoon olive oil, and set onto the prepared baking sheet. Poke the eggplant all over with a fork; place onto baking sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven until the garlic has turned golden brown and the eggplant is tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool until cool enough to handle. Peel eggplant and chop into large chunks; peel or squeeze the roasted garlic from its skin, and set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion, and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, then stir in reserved eggplant, roasted garlic, tomato puree, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 40 minutes.
- Once cooked, carefully puree soup in batches in a blender or food processor until smooth. Return soup to the stove in a clean saucepan. Stir in half-and-half, season to taste with salt and pepper; cook over medium-low heat until hot.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 108 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 14 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 119 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I make this recipe all the time… I eliminated the Worcestershire and heavy cream and added more garlic. It makes a lighter soup. I like the soup as is, as pre-dinner vs a meal.
This is the first time I’ve ever made eggplant soup and I love this recipe! I did add about 1 1/2 cup of frozen (cubed) butternut squash as one viewer recommended. Thumbs up! My family loved the soup. I served with garlic flavored croutons sprinkled on top. This soup recipe is a keeper.
This was a great soup. I made it with the following changes: 1) Two bulbs of garlic instead of one 2) Two teaspoons Worcestershire 3) Added multiple dashes (probably about 10) of cayenne 4) Added a few dashes of sage 5) Added two dashes of nutmeg 6) Salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper 7) I also added two summer squash that we had (cooked the same way as the eggplant and not peeled) because my husband doesn’t like summer squash. It was delicious! A huge hit!
Yes
I found the soup bland and unappetizing looking due to the color. It would be better as a soup base instead of as is.
I made this twice. The first time I followed the recipe as is, and while it certainly wasn’t bad, I felt that it needed a little more flavor. So the second time, I caramelized the onions and also good sized shredded carrot, and added smoked paprika, thyme, oregano and at the end I stirred in about 1/2 cup of heavy cream, just to add a little richness.
I would definitely have it again. I needed something tasty for someone who could only have liquids and everyone enjoyed it. I didn’t have any cayenne on hand so I used some curry powder instead.
Just made the soup, it turned out amazing! My husband thought he was in a French restaurant 🙂 The color turned out beautiful! I added just a little bit more homemade tomato sauce from an Italian restaurant that’s close to us. Also, I used whole milk instead of half-and-half.
I had an excess of eggplant from the local farmers market and thought this would be a great recipe to use it up. I love garlic and eggplant, so I thought it would be a great combination. The roasted garlic smelled amazing, but when the soup was finally ready, I was quite disappointed. The tomato puree overpowered the eggplant and the color and appearance were not appetizing at all. It didn’t really have the creamy texture of a chowder or bisque. In fact, it reminded me of baby food. It may be better leaving it a chunky soup as some reviewers suggested. Also, I think the directions make it more difficult than necessary. The recipe has you peel the eggplant after it’s roasted. That was difficult and time consuming. Next time, I’ll peel it first and wrap it in foil to keep it from drying out. I ended up adding more garlic and more cayenne to boost the flavors and then I topped it with crumbled feta. It was much better then, but couldn’t make the texture better. I may make it again if I ever need to use up a lot of eggplant, but it won’t be one that I go to often and I’ll try some variations from other reviewers.
Subbed in tomato paste and milk and added roasted red pepper. At first I wasn’t too keen on the just-made soup – flavor was very subtle and it didn’t seem to taste as good as the ingredients before they went into the soup. But as the days went on, the flavor kept getting better and better. Don’t think it will be on my regular soup schedule, but when I want something ‘different’, this will be it. PS – For my last bowl, I added some mild-med grating cheese – wow
This is SOOO delicious. Added only 1 cup of half and half, a little more cayenne and some paprika. About 3oz. of tomato paste instead of purée and added the Worcestershire at same time which is not indicated in recipe. I used an immersion blender. I will make this again for sure!
This was an excellent soup, I will add lump crab meat next time. That will take it to the next level and will not add a lot of fat or calories.
I followed this recipe as written with no variations and the end result was just BLAH. At that point, I added rosemary and thyme as some suggested and let it simmer a bit longer — still blah with a slight hint of flavor. I’m not a huge fan of eggplant so I thought it may have just been me so I brought my son-in-law and grandson in as tasters — they adore all things eggplant — and it was thumbs down from both. Two hours later, it had a miniscule improvement of flavor. A day later, a little better but still nothing I would make again. I think I’ll try adding some cubes/slices of leek and fennel and see if I can rescue it. Maybe even some kind of flavorful sausage (kielbasa??).
I LOVED this recipe! I skipped on the onions because they’re my nemesis, but it still came out great!!! I topped it with croutons and fresh shredded parmesan and it really added to it!
What a surprisingly good soup! The only changes I made were replacing the half and half with unsweetened almond milk, and adding 1 cup of roasted red/yellow peppers to the mix. Can’t believe how good this was. I saved time by using a handheld blender. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
It can feel a little silly to review a recipe that you ended up changing… but wanted to share b/c it was a great success. I had 2 small zucchini that needed to go, so I poked holes in them and roasted them alongside the garlic and eggplant. Peeled and cut them up when I did the eggplant. Other reviewers mentioned rosemary and thyme, so I figured why not and put a scant 1/4 tsp of each along with the cayenne pepper. My husband and I like a little spice, so the amount of cayenne I used was 1/8 tsp + 1 dash. I didn’t measure the amount of onion – just diced up about 1/2 of a small-medium sized one and called it good. The soup turned out great. The zucchini was an excellent addition I wouldn’t think to leave out when I make this again!
Simple ingredients, not the quickest dish to make, but I’ve never made soup before and it wasn’t hard. It is unique and flavorful, and my family loved it! Not many people I know can say they’ve had eggplant soup, so it was definitely worth trying! I didn’t have cayenne pepper, but used a little paprika and it still tasted great. I had to make my own tomato puree, but that hardly took any time at all, and I didn’t have half-and-half, so I used the milk/cornstarch trick I saw in one of the other comments. Overall a great dish! I highly recommend it.
Added more cayenne for more kick, since other reviewers said the amount called for was almost unnoticeable. We enjoyed it with a nice whole grain and seed crusty bread. Since we don’t normally have half and half on hand, I just used roughly half heavy cream and half milk. Also, I used an immersion (stick) blender right in the pot, which worked perfectly.
I didn’t make it exactly like the recipe. Instead of half and half I used 1/4 cup buttermilk and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. I used hunts tomato sauce for the tomato puree. I also added some red pepper flakes as well as ancho chili powder to add a bit of kick. I cooked some spinach in there as well as was recommended by another down below because I too had some spinach in the fridge that needed used. This was a fantastic base for a recipe and you can really play with the ingredients to make it just right.
This was very good! I followed the recipe exactly since this was my first try. I only have one suggestion. Cook the eggplant twice as long and at 325-350 degrees. My onions were starting to burn before I felt the eggplant was soft enough. I finally fished them & the garlic out of the pan and let the eggplant finish. All-in-all my husband and I really liked it. Thanks for sharing this! Eggplant soup was a new one to me!
This soup is epic! I made it vegetarian with vegetable broth and vegan Worcestershire sauce substitutions. I also increased the cayenne to 1/8 tsp., which was fine but may not have been necessary. My husband normally loathes eggplant, but he LIKED this soup. I’d list this one among my top 5 favorite soups of all time.