Kelly Rossiter
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I got a bunch of onions from my local farmers' market and I wanted to make some onion soup. I was quite surprised looking through the Planet Green archives that I had never posted on this before. Last year I made an onion panade from Alice Water's cookbook The Art of Simple Food, but it is more like a soupy casserole than a true soup.
Making the recipe is quite simple, but you have to give yourself a bit of time to caramelize the onions. That's what gives the soup it's flavour base. If you cook the onions too quickly they burn and become bitter, but if you cook them slowly they turn golden brown and become incredibly sweet.
Of course, the classic recipe has a topping of toast with Gruyere melted on top. The delicious gooey strings of cheese are part of the joy of eating this soup. Well, I didn't have any Gruyere on hand and I was too lazy to go to the store, and I'm trying not to eat so much cheese. That seemed like enough excuses to just put a bit of Parmesan on toast and use that. My husband was not pleased and I won't make that mistake again.
This is an excellent soup to have on a snowy day. It's rich and filling and warms you right up. Not only that, the house smells amazing while it's cooking. Onion soup is traditionally made with beef stock, but use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version. This recipe calls for putting the toast on the whole pot of soup and baking it for 20 minutes and then putting it under the broiler. That just seems like too much work to me. I broil the toasts with the cheese on top and then slide them onto the soup in the bowl. You can decide how much of a purist you want to be. It also calls for two types of cheese, but I normally just use one.
Onion Soup Gratinee
12 fresh parsley stems
1/2 tsp dried thyme, crumbled
8 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lbs onions, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of sugar
2 tbsp all unbleached purpose flour
6 cups beef or vegetable stock
1/3 cup dry vermouth
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
For Topping
1 inch thick baguette slices, enough to 2 for each bowl of soup
1 garlic clove, halved crosswise
1 cup grated Gruyere (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan (about 1 ounce)
- Tie parsley stems, thyme peppercorns, and bay leaf in a small square of cheesecloth with string to make a bouquet garni.
- Melt butter with oil in a 3 to 4 quart ovenproof heavy saucepan over moderately low heat. Add onions, salt and pepper and coo, covered, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft, about 18 minutes. Add sugar, increase heat to moderate, and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.
- Add flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Stir in stock, vermouth, bouquet garni and salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Discard bouquet garni and stir in Worcestershire sauce.
- Meanwhile, but a rack in the middle of the oven preheat to 350F. Arrange bread on a baking sheet and bake, turning once, until golden, about 15 minutes total. Remove from oven and rub toasts with cut sides of garlic clove.
- Cover top of soup completely with toasted bread. Sprinkle evenly with cheeses and bake until soup comes to a simmer, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Preheat broiler. Broil soup 4 to 6 inches from heat until cheese is golden, about 1 minutes.
Difficulty Level: Easy
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl.
Related Posts:
Soup of the Week: Spicy Parsnip and Carrot
Soup of the Week: Mushroom Barley
Soup of the Week: Baked Potato
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