For Halloween: Roasted Garlic Soup

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The air is crisp and the pumpkins are aplenty and that can mean only one thing. Halloween is drawing near and so, too, are the ghouls, goblins, and vampires. Instead of whittling your wooden spoon into a sharp stake we thought we'd arm you with a more passive and delicious defense.

We spent a rainy Saturday evening roasting, peeling, and ultimately consuming a nice heap of garlic with friends. This soup is the perfect way to set the stage for a night by the flickering jack-o-lantern watching vampire movies. With Halloween falling on a Friday night this year, you'll even have the weekend to recover and get the garlic out of your system.

With its creamy texture, nutty flavor and mild sweetness, this soup was a knockout... in more ways than one! If you spend Saturday enjoying this dish, you'll spend your Sunday encased in an invisible force field (aka the funk of 40,000 years if you will). This is something only secured with every one's favorite bulbous and stinking rose. But it's worth it. Besides, the beauty of garlic is that as long as everyone in your household or at your gathering has some none of you will notice that pungent Pigpen-esque cloud billowing around you the next day. You'll all be happily oblivious. Strangers on the street, however, might not be so lucky.

Keeping this in mind, it's obviously not a soup to serve the day before--say--a job interview, a big date, or that all-important meeting. While garlic is associated with great health benefits like lowering blood pressure and cholesterol; fortifying your immune system; preventing blood clots, strokes and cancer; and fending off fangsters and creatures of the night (including mosquitoes!)--it's still best in moderation. (Its anticoagulant or powerful blood-thinning properties being one reason). We'd suggest it as a first course or on the side of other main dishes.

Either way, once you have a bowl of this in your hand you'll be ready for anything. So sink your teeth into a good vampire flick. We tend to like our vampire movies creepy more than campy, but we can personally vouch for these: Interview with a Vampire, 30 Days of Night, and Lost Boys. For other options be sure to check out this vampire movie countdown.

View and print this recipe here!