The Weekender: Caramelised French onion soup

Let's get cosy and cook together this weekend. Introducing the second recipe in our `The Weekender' series - French onion soup.

A brief intro to ‘The Weekender’

It’s simple: every week we pick a recipe from our database and not only cook it, but cost it too. We explore its history, and its ingredients, as well as getting some expert advice.

Team lovefood will make the recipe at the weekend, and post photos of our progress on Facebook for you all to laugh at. But sometimes we get lonely, and we’d love it if you, our cherished readers, would cook-a-long with us too. Tell us if you enjoyed it, share your snaps, and rustle up a fantastic meal!

The recipe

The Weekender for 16th/17th June is caramelised onion soup by Annabel Langbein. New Zealand chef Annabel aims to cook recipes that everyone – and that includes farmer husband Ted – can make, and the only food she doesn’t like are snails and fried silkworms.

The shopping

Super duper cheap, this recipe is a store cupboard basic. It’s depth of flavour comes from a long and gentle cooking time, and the key is to buy the best red onions you can find. If you’re heading to the supermarket, we’ve costed the dish at just under £6 for two people’s lunch (our supermarket of the week was Waitrose).

Waitrose

£1.07 for organic red onions

19p for the brown sugar (with plenty left over – weekend baking?)

54p for the balsamic vinegar (again, lots left over for salad-drizzling)

£2.59 for good quality, fresh beef stock (not from a cube or pot - we chose this one) 

84p for one white baguette

About 50p for the grated gruyere (plenty left over)

Total = £5.73

 …and that’s it! We’ve assumed that you’ve got olive oil, salt, and pepper at home.

Here’s a handy shopping list to print out, or to save to your phone if you’re tech savvy.

Red onions

With their crisp, sweet flesh, red onions are used in cooking where you really want the taste of onion to come through (as opposed to white onions, which are usually used as a flavour base alongside garlic). Native to Asia, they’re available throughout the year and lose their purplish red-ness when cooked. The best way to avoid crying is to not cut through the root of the onion, as this is where most of the sulphur-rich tear-inducing oil resides.

Cooking it

Annabel caramelises her onions before making the soup, to draw out their sweet-ness. This takes at least 45 minutes and patience is an absolute must – don’t be tempted to turn up the heat, and only stir every now and again. It’s a good idea to do something else while they cook (set the table, have a bath, peruse lovefood.com…) so you’re not tempted to fiddle with them too much.

Although Annabel doesn’t call it French onion soup, we like to think it is. Namely because it has the three key features of French soup: 1) it’s onion-based 2) it comes with floating croutons 3) there’s cheese in there, too. 

But if you want to make it even more authentic, best add a splash of booze. Try a tablespoon or two of dry sherry, port, brandy, or half a glass of red or white wine - add it after the onions have caramelised, and simmer for a further 3-5 minutes before adding the stock. That's what we're going to do!

You might also like

The Weekender: Pasta with rich meat sauce

Ultimate Boozy Onion and Three Cheese Toastie

Bacon, Cheese and Onion Gratin