Bear’s Garlic and Wood Garlic Soup

We were going to gather the plant of “Allium ursinum”, which is called as Bear’s Garlic, Wild Garlic, Wood Garlic and Ramsons in folk speech. It belongs to the Allioideae family, which is the subfamily of the Amaryllidaceae. Amaryllis family is one of the plant species that heralds the coming of spring. We lost our hearts to the nature once, in any circumstances, we keep an eye on the nature.

We did not have to go far from home because it takes five or ten minutes to reach the forest by vehicle. It was gratifying to see that bear’s garlics vegetated compared to last week. We started to gather the plants immediately for the soup of the evening.

We were nearby the metropolis of Kitzingen, which is located in the state of Bavaria in Germany. It was the best time for gathering bear’s garlic because we found out that it is not as delicious as now, after it blossoms.

Before the plant starts to flowering, it can be a little unfavorable to gather the bear’s garlic, which grows in shady and humid parts of the forests, meadows and bushes or in the humid lands of riverside. By the way, it is difficult to distinguish the leaves of bear’s garlic from the poisonous Autumn Crocus and Lily of the Valley (Mayflower). Only the strong garlic scent and the clusters of starry white flowers may help to differentiate the plant from the others.

We were going to use the flowers for the soup, but it is a miraculous herb that is also used in foods and salads. After it is washed and minced, the bear garlic is spat on foods, salads, potatoes or buttered bread like parsley. It is a plant that can be also eaten uncooked. Since it has a strong garlic flavor, it is good to use it in a small quantity. I was curious about the taste of the soup and I trusted Brita in the kitchen.

As a result of our research, we discovered that it was used for stomach aches, and blood cleaning by Ancient Romans. In fact, nature gives us a great opportunity to cleanse our bodies of toxins and get over the effects of winter into spring. What you have to do is, first of all to be sure about gathering the right plant and then consume it fresh. Since the leaves loose the healing power when they dried, you need to use the green leaves for tea. Put the fresh leaves in a teapot and add water, after ten minutes of steeping the tea is ready.

In the evening, we had the bear garlic soup and toasted bread slices with olive oil. The appearance and taste of the soup, which was prepared by Britta, were wonderful. For those who wonder the recipe, I made a study. I wrote the amounts approximately because Brita has been cooking this soup with eyeball estimation for years.

Bear’s Garlic – Wild Garlic Soup

200 g leaves of fresh wild garlic

300 ml milk

300 ml cream

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon beef bouillon

1 egg yolk

First of all, the bechamel sauce is prepared with butter, flour and milk. Put the butter and flour in a saucepan and rub the butter to flour with slight heat. Then, mix until it is set to the pudding consistency and slowly add the milk. Add the wild garlics, which finely chopped or pulped, then, add the egg yolk and cream that blended in a separate pot. Finally, pour the bouillon for flavoring.

If it becomes very intense, you can pour milk arbitrarily.

Put the soup into bowls and serve with cream. White cream adds beauty to the visual quality of the soup with the marvelous green tones.