If you happen to have a kilo of onions handy, a couple of stock cubes, a slug of brandy in your booze cabinet, and an hour to spare – then this could be your go-to soup recipe for spring. I added goat’s cheese and chive toast as a variation on a crouton, making things a little more zippy and fresh.
Be patient with the caramelisation process – it’s enough to make a monk tap his toes. If you succeed though, the results are just beautiful.
This makes 2 pints of soup to serve 4. You’ll need:
For the soup:
1kg of white onions, thinly sliced
2 stock cubes (beef is punchier, but veg is fine)
Tbsp plain flour
Tsp white sugar
30g butter
Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed (or a heaped tsp garlic paste)2 shots of brandy (optional)
Salt and pepper
A couple of dashes of malt vinegar
For the toast:
4 slices of your favourite bread
80g soft goat’s cheese
Chopped chives
-Heat the oil and butter together in a heavy-based saucepan. Once fizzling, add the onions and cook for 10 minutes, until the onions soften (don’t burn them!)
- Add the sugar and continue to gently cook with the lid on, for around 30 minutes. You are looking for the onions to turn a sticky, medium brown. The bottom of the pan will form a brown glaze. Scrape this up into the onions every few minutes
- Once the onions are gloopy and wonderful, add the garlic and turn the heat up. Quickly sprinkle in the flour as a thickener, add the brandy. Stir like you’ve never stirred before. Add the stock, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- In this last 20 minutes, heat the oven to gas mark 6/220c. Toast your bread and cut into whatever shape takes your mood.
- In a bowl, mash together your goat’s cheese and chives. Spread on the toast shapes and bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Ladle the soup out and float the toast on top. Bien!
