Happy December! This month, I created an advent calendar for vlogmas. Each day before December 25th, I will be sharing tips & tricks to make this holiday season sustainable. Watch this video to learn what day twelve of the advent calendar says.
Would you like to impress your guests with a chic vegetarian dish, which is easy and cheap to make? Look no further than French onion soup! Historically, this soup was cooked by the peasants in France, because onion is cheap and easy to grow. And I am happy to attest to that, since I am using home-grown onions in this video.
Here’s what you need:
8 big onions
Half a bulb of garlic
2 litres vegetable stock
Wine or sherry
Oil or butter
2 bay leaves
Salt, pepper and thyme to taste
Step 1. Peel and chop the onions. I prefer to cut them in rings, but you can cut them finer if you prefer less chunks in your soup.
Step 2. Heat up butter or oil in the pan, toss the onions and caramelise them until they get brown.
Step 3. Don’t worry if the onions are a bit burned – add wine, stock and bay leaves in the pan.
Step 4. Peel the garlic and toss the cloves in the soup – never add the garlic together with the onion, otherwise the taste of onion will overpower the garlic.
Step 5. Traditionally, French onion soup is served with croutons and grilled cheese. I used some stale bread and young cheese, but the preference is usually a French baguette and gruyere cheese (or cheese which will provide a good stretch when heated – e.g. emmentaler or mozzarella).
Have you ever cooked onion soup? My recipe is loosely based on Elise’s article here: