I know many of you would be disgusted by the idea of a soup entirely made by onions, but I promise you this soup will pleasantly surprise you. This soup is the most heavenly comfort food, and it can fix all your troubles.
This soup is a staple of French cuisine and funnily enough it used to be a cure against hangover. You know when you have a night out and all you want is a steamy hot dog, well apparently drunk French people crave a steamy onion soup instead. In Italy there is a saying that goes ‘the world is beautiful as it has all kinds of people’, here we go.
Apparently, this hangover tradition got lost in time and now you’ll find the onion soup in just a few brave bistros. Dismissed, disregarded, underestimated.
It is in a bistro indeed where I tried the soup for the first time. I was a student living in the suburbs of Paris and there were just a few meals out I could afford. I was intrigued when the humble soup came to the table as part of the lunch menu. No onion and no garlic have ever scared me!
I dug in and I felt in love with the first mouthful. The onion and broth combine into a misty white decadent soup, subtle but rich, distinctive but sweet. Its flavour warms you from within. You will never get enough of this soup as it’s properly addictive.
It is normally served piping hot with toasted bread, it’s simply a dream.
This soup has been wrongly dismissed. This soup is a real keeper. Simple, hearty, delicious. It’s time for it to come back to our tables.
As often in life, it’s the humblest ones who are the most powerful.
I thought this soup might have been very difficult to make it at home, but it’s actually very easy once you overcome the hurdle of cutting a kilo of onions without crying.
Here are my five tips to avoid crying!
No onions, no cry
- Use a sharp knife – I know this might sound silly, but a sharp knife is probably the most essential tool you can have in your kitchen. Forget expensive cutlery, just make sure your knife is regularly sharpened.
- Chill your onions overnight or at least an hour before cutting them.
- Wear goggles
- Keep a glass of water near you while cutting the onions. Apparently, eye irritation can be avoided if you have any liquid stuff near you as this will attract the onions’ chemicals rather than your eyes…not sure if this explanation is true but this trick does work.
- Ask someone else to cut the onions instead, always the best idea.
As you might wondering, I changed a few ingredients to make it vegan. I substituted the traditional beef broth for a vegan one – store bought as I am always in a rush and eat this as a weeknight treat.
I hope you’ll give it a try. Dip a piece of bread in the soup, close your eyes, give it a bite, and you’ll find yourself in a Parisian bistro.
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois le oignons en rose
Onion Soup
Course: Mains, StartersDifficulty: Easy4
servings5
minutes50
minutesI know many of you would be disgusted by the idea of a soup entirely made by onions, but I promise you this soup will pleasantly surprise you. This soup is the most heavenly comfort food, and it can fix all your troubles.
Ingredients
1 kg white onions
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
40 g flour (4 spoons)
1.5 l vegetable broth
ground nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste
Method
- Slice the onions, good luck my friend! See above ‘No onions, no cry’ for tricks on how not to cry
- Heat three spoons of oil in a big pan over medium heat and add all the onions. Fry them for 5 minutes over low heat till they turn soft and brown. Be patient and do not skip this step. The low heat will caramelise the onions, make them more digestible and give your soup its distinctive sweet taste. Constantly stir them to avoid burning them – been there so many times.
- Now add 4 spoons of flour and stir well. Once the onions have absorbed all the flour (it takes around 1- 2 mins), add the vegetable broth in. Close with a lid and let it simmer for 40 minutes over low heat. Check your soup after 20 minutes and add more broth if needed.
- Once ready, season with a pinch of nutmeg (optional) + pepper and salt to taste.
- Serve with warm bread or croutons. It’s simply divine.
A great reminder of how versatile onions can be. I will give it a try given that I have a lot of frozen broth in my freezer 🙂 thanks for the recipe!
p.s. love the googles 😀 <3