Onions are good for you, right? Low in calories, lots of magic vitamins.
innocent onions
Well…
So, what about if you do this?
melt dastardly butter…
onions, meet butter…
To get this?
yummy french onion soup…
And of course, it has to be accompanied by a large chunk of melted cheese on toast, because the recipe says so.
Blame my 1970s ‘we love cream and butter’ cookery book. And a certain blogger who recommended this particular recipe. I’ve been making it regularly ever since.
Here’s an online version attempting a nod at healthiness, but still with plenty of butter - even just a little will help to give richness. I quite like it with a glug of marsala rather than wine, and vegetable stock (probably even water) works fine. Some recipes add a dash of worcester sauce and some leave out alcohol. The Cookery Year version is as simple as it gets: onions, butter, stock, seasoning, a little flour to thicken, and the cheese and bread. Whatever you do, ignore any recipes that suggest you can cook the onions in a few minutes: the flavour comes from letting them slowly brown and caramelize, and that takes at least half an hour. And, whatever any recipe may say, don’t use margarine. Eugh.
7 comments on “French onion soup”
Looks delicious. Be healthy a different time. Or, the good onions will cancel out the bad butter. Isn’t it a pity we have to think this way?
I always wondered about the nutritional value of onions (sans butter) but was too lazy to investigate. Thanks!
Now what about mushrooms?
Probably not so good when you slice and fry them in as much butter/oil as they’ll soak up, add a large dollop of creme fraiche and stick ‘em on top of a hunk of toast…
Otherwise, here you go. (And that looks a good site for finding out the nutritional composition of a lot of foods.) And lots of websites singing their virtues too.
ooh yummy.
French onion soup is one of the world’s easiest and most civilised ways of dealing with cold grim grumbly weather.
the other combo is leek and potato, whether Welsh or French.
My theory about good food and tummy spreading - which I suffer from but I have the benediction of middle age - is not to worry about weight but to make sure I eat from the five food groups in the pyramid etc and make sure I get a half hour of raised heartbeat exercise per day. As long as I held to this, I was alright.
The computer and working from home is my enemy. Means I don’t cycle daily.
Oh, and I just realised you have the Readers Digest Cookery Year. That is a very good book, which I have used off and on ever since it was first printed.
These days of course we need Asian cookbooks and there are more Italian cookbooks around as well, though I still venerate Elizabeth David, partly for her championing of the chicken liver in the bolognaise, sorry ragu.
But the page 314 sort of area of the RD which describes the basics is still very important.
If you have never done it before, find the clafoutis recipe and make them. An easy way to be loved by your friends.
Other tips - Jane Grigson has never been bettered. And, the other source of great, great cooking info is the various James Beard books, unjustly neglected outside the US.
Happy eating.
I adore leek and potato soup. Um, I just adore potatoes and leeks in all sorts of ways really. I have some slightly manky old floury potatoes that need using in the kitchen, come to think of it. Soup good… (But tonight I think a waxy potato and spinach and cheese thing, ‘cos the spinach needs to be used up.)
(My cookbook collection has come up here before… It’s unlikely to expand much for a while because I have nowhere to put anything.)
I was thinking that you could use a minimal amount of butter and make up the difference with a very mild olive oil (healthy!). I’ve actually made it with fat-free chicken broth to feel less guilty, and it’s nice. The secret really is to let the onions cook ridiculously slowly, though!