Archive | January 2013

Break out those Kleenex, it is onion time!

I am a soup lover, huge soup lover. I can and have eaten it for breakfast, lunch and dinner pretty much daily. It is warm and comforting, fast and easy – what more could you ask for in a food?

French Onion Soup is a Fav, but I am hugely uncoordinated so the huge chunk of toasted bread, (seemingly) sealed to the top of the soup bowl usually results in my wearing my soup down my front. To save my husband from the chore of more laundry (and to save myself from the excessive calories), I decided to go with a simple onion and mushroom soup.

This recipe is based on the French on Soup recipe in The Daily Soup cookbook, it is by far my most used cookbook. I have not made a soup in this book that I did not LOVE! I do typically reduce salt in the recipes and this time around I also nixed the oil. Other changes are typically for pantry reasons.

So, what you need:

5 average size yellow onions

5 average sized red onions

1 tablespoon sugar

about 10 average white button mushrooms

12 cups unsalted veggie stock

2 tsp dried thyme

2 bays leaves

1 tsp kosher salt

pepper to taste

1 cup Marsala wine

3″ Parmesan Rind

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced.

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut up onions in thin slices. Now cutting onions does not normally bother me, but this is A LOT of onions! I tried the old candle trick, and while I wasn’t crying nearly as much as the last time I made this soup, sans candle, I still had to take some breaks! Next time I may find a safety goggles or a full face shield. …you think I’m joking, don’t you.

Thinly slice your onions

Place the onions in a large roasting pans and sprinkle with sugar. Add a bit of stock and roast for 1-1.5 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. The original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of butter and one table spoon of oil (I like coconut oil), if you go with the oil they will caramelize faster than with the stock.

Roast your onions for an hour or more until nicely browned, stirring every 15 minutes.

Slice your mushrooms and add to a hot stock pot with a little stock, stirring until they soften a bit.

Cook the mushrooms in a bit of stock.

Remove the onions from the oven and transfer the roasted onions to the stock pot and add, the thyme, bay leaves, S&P, turning to coat the veggies. I also deglazed the roasting pan with some stock and added that into the stock pot.

Next add the Marsala, cook until all of the liquid is absorbed.

Add the remaining stock and Parmesan rind, bring to boil and then simmer, partially covered for about 30 minutes.