Soup turned out as advertised - on the thin side, but flavor wasn't bad. Gave everyone just a small serving before a large meal of roasted meats. Nobody complained, but no rave reviews either. I felt the croutons didn't have much flavor in themselves either. Made special run to store to buy 'plain' fresh thyme, but wonder if using lemon varigated thyme from my herb garden would have given the soup more interest. It DEFINITELY needed salt. I generously salted my serving with table salt after the first bite. Wish I had put more in to begin with. Maybe salting the croutons would have helped, too. No need to strain after blending for me either. Word of warning -- if you have an average-sized, cheapy blender, the amount of liquid was too much for it to handle. Kept spraying hot soup out of the lid of my cheap blender. Also, a tip on roasted garlic: I prepared it per recipe just to see and I find my standard method way easier. Cut off the tops of the heads and drizzle with garlic, then wrap in tinfoil packets to roast. That way, when thier done, you can just squeeze out the cloves easily without fighting the skin. This cut-the-head-in half-after-it's-cooked bit made a huge mess. Probably won't make the soup again, but if I did, I'd add more thyme and more salt and pepper.

I cut the recipe in half & then used half milk & hlaf organic chicken broth too add flavor. I used my immersion blender to puree & it did such a good job that there was no need to strain. I didn't make the croutons as I had some homemade garlic croutons on hand. This tasted overwhelmingly of garlic w/ no complexity of flavors. I've seen other roasted garlic soups that call for a squeeze of lemon over the bowl, so I tried that & then sprinkled some asiago cheese on top. That helped add a bit of depth to the soup. At first I was going to give this 3 stars but it grows on you after a couple of bites (hubby said it's after the garlic numbs all your taste buds LOL) Thanks DJ!