Roasted Garlic and Shallot Potato Soup with Cheesy Croutons

Ingredients

• 2 cups baking potato cubed peeled () ( 3/4 pound)
• 1 teaspoon pepper black divided freshly ground
• 3 ounces cheese blue crumbled
• 8 inch bread baguette french
• 1 cup cooking wine dry white
• 3 cups less-sodium chicken broth fat-free
• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves fresh chopped
• 5  garlic heads whole unpeeled
• 1 cup milk 2% reduced-fat
• 3.5 tablespoons olive oil divided
• 2 cups onion coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese fresh grated
• 1.3 teaspoons salt divided
• 0.8 pound shallots unpeeled

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• baking sheet
• oven
• blender
• roasting pan
• aluminum foil
• dutch oven

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. To prepare soup, remove white papery skins from garlic heads (do not peel or separate cloves); cut off tops, leaving root ends intact.
3. Place garlic in a shallow roasting pan.
4. Drizzle 1 tablespoon oil over garlic; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover with foil.
5. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
6. Add shallots to pan.
7. Drizzle 1 tablespoon oil over shallots; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover and bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until tender and browned. Cool. Squeeze garlic to extract pulp; peel shallots. Discard skins. Set garlic pulp and shallots aside.
8. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion. Cover and cook 15 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
9. Add garlic pulp, peeled shallots, and wine. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes.
10. Stir in broth, potato, and thyme; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Cool slightly.
11. Place half of potato mixture in a blender; process until smooth.
12. Pour pureed mixture into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining potato mixture.
13. Return pureed mixture to pan; stir in milk, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper into pureed mixture. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
14. Preheat oven to 40
15. To prepare croutons, place bread slices in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Lightly coat tops of bread with cooking spray.
16. Bake at 400 for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.
17. Sprinkle cheeses evenly over bread slices, turning once.
18. Bake 3 minutes or until cheese melts.
19. Serve warm with soup.