French Onion Soup

I thought soup season was well and truly over, but it turned a bit chilly again this week so I decided to make French Onion Soup.  This recipe was given to me by my neighbour.  It is a very easy recipe and it is extremely delicious!  I have made this recipe with both stock cubes and stock.  I would recommend using stock rather than the cubes - the result using stock is a much richer flavour.

What you will need

7 Large Brown Onions

About 2 good tablespoons of Olive Oil 

2 Beef stock cubes and 2 litres of water OR 2 litres of beef stock (homemade or Campbell's)

Salt & Black Pepper to taste

Large cooking pot

About 250g of grated Gruyere cheese(optional but recommended!)

French Stick (Also optional but recommended!)

How to make it

Chop the onions into thickish rings.

Heat the oil in the pot (medium heat) and add the onions and about one teaspoon of salt.  Stir the onions quite regularly until the onions are very well brown and soft (don't burn them!) You can adjust the gas flame to suit at any time during the process.

The brownness of the onions and the residue on the base of the pot will give the soup its colour and the flavour. 

When the browning process is completed slowly add 500ml of Hot Water (or stock) and slowly scrape and stir the bottom of the pan with the spoon to get as much of the brown residue off the bottom. Continue adding the other 1.5 litres of hot water (or stock), add the 2 cubes of beef stock (unless you have used stock!) and stir into onions with a wooden spoon. Cook for about 20 minutes. Add further salt and pepper to taste if necessary.

Add half the Gruyere cheese to the soup, stir and turn gas off. 

The next bit is optional: Before serving the soup, cut up slices of French stick and toast so both sides are dry.  Grate some cheese on one side of the bread slices and place under a grill for a couple of minutes until cheese melts.

Add boiling soup to bowl, place toasted cheese bread pieces on top of soup - add black pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

SWEET POTATO & GINGER SOUP

This is a very simple soup recipe that I made up on recent winter’s day. 

There are so many exciting ways to combine ingredients to make soup.  I find it is just best to play around with seasonal vegetables and whatever is left in your fridge at the end of the week.

This week I had a very sad looking bunch of flat leaf parsley so that is a feature in this soup.

This recipe is probably enough for three serves.  It takes just less than an hour to make from when you start to when you eat!

What you need:

• One sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
• One potato, wash and roughly chop (I tend to leave potato skins on unless there are some particularly funky bits)
• One leek
• Half a bunch of flat leaf parsley
• One centimetre of fresh ginger, peeled & roughly chopped
•  One teaspoon vegetable stock powder
• One tablespoon olive oil
•  salt & pepper to taste
• One teaspoon coriander powder
• Approximately four cups of water

How to make it:

There are lots of substitutes you can use (eg. garlic instead of ginger, coriander instead of parsley, onion instead of leek) but I quite like the ingredients I have chosen which is why I used them.  But it is really personal taste!

Sautee your leek and ginger in the hot olive oil in a saucepan.

When soft, add the chopped vegetables, coriander, stock powder, salt and pepper.  Give this a rough stir so it is combined.  Cover in water (about four cups). 

 

I like soup to be quite thick so I would suggest starting with 3 – 4 cups of water and add more if you need to.

Bring to the boil then reduce heat.  Simmer until vegetables are soft.

Add the chopped parsley right at the end and whizz everything together until the vegetables are smooth. You can add more water if you need to here (just make sure it is hot water).

Serve with crusty bread.  

Enjoy!