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The soup can be baked in the oven with bread or served with separate cheese croutons
Photo: Sebastian Maas / DER SPIEGEL
In November it is fundamentally difficult for me not to get melancholy.
The trees that were still brightly colored suddenly appear like bare skeletons, every day at 4.30 p.m. the lights surprisingly go out again, and because I have already consumed all the streaming services on offer in the past year, all I can do now is look at the dull gray Hamburg heaven as a pastime.
This year there is an added complication that our country is being overwhelmed by an absolutely avoidable fourth corona wave.
The incidence map currently looks like I was in the Finnish sauna after 190 minutes.
While in many other countries you go out to party again, plan your next vacation in restaurants with friends in the evening or just meet colleagues in the office, for us in Germany the motto is still: stay at home as often as possible, isolate and wait for the booster.
It is to cry for.
To cheer me up a little, this week there is a warming autumn dish that will first tear the onion and then the tears of joy: French onion soup.
This is one of those traditional classics that are completely wrongly only served in old-fashioned restaurants with dark wood paneling.
The most important component: time
The preparation is easy, the list of ingredients is short and cheap and the result is decadent.
The most important component (similar to the tortilla) is time.
And since I have to sit around at home until further notice and hope that it will rain brains from heaven at some point, I've had more than enough of it.
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The trick in making good onion soup is to sweat the onions very slowly over low to medium heat.
So you can tease out their natural sweetness with relish.
The onions are simply cooked in a little butter or oil until they turn into a kind of jelly, only then is the liquid added.
At no time should they fry.
In the traditional version, the soup is topped with toasted bread and gratinated with cheese.
But since very few of us have fireproof soup bowls for the oven (I would rather not bake my cereal bowl, for example), you can simply prepare the cheesy croutons separately and dip them into the soup at the end.
Delicious!
This is what you need for four servings:
For the broth:
1 kg of onions or shallots
1.2 l vegetable stock
2 cloves of garlic
1 glass of white wine, alternatively a large shot of brandy
1 tbsp wheat flour
1 teaspoon hot mustard
50 g butter or oil
Optional: 3-4 bay leaves, 3-4 scoops of allspice, a little thyme
For the croutons:
1 baguette
100-150 g cheese for gratinating, e.g. Gruyère, Parmesan or Emmentaler
What does this cost?
With cheap wine and cheese you should land well below 2 euros per serving.
How long does it take?
About 60 minutes if you want to get it right.
It's that easy to make onion soup with cheese croutons
Peel the onions, cut in half and cut into fine strips.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the onions and sweat on a maximum (!) Medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes.
Stir regularly.
The onions should be soft but not dark;
if they are roasting too much, reduce the heat quickly.
At the end of the cooking time, a slightly sticky and cloudy jelly should have formed between the onions.
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Now add the tablespoon of flour and stir vigorously, deglaze with the white wine or brandy and increase the heat.
Let the alcohol boil off, then add the vegetable stock and optional seasonings to the saucepan.
You can collect allspice and bay leaves yourself before serving - or you can simply warn the guests.
Cover and simmer gently for another 20 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the croutons.
First preheat the oven to 250 degrees (top / bottom heat).
Cut the baguette into slices about four to five centimeters thick.
Roast these in the oven until golden brown.
If you like, you can coat them with some oil beforehand.
There is still a little way to go before the next bathing season, so no false modesty.
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In the end, it depends on whether you have ovenproof soup bowls:
If so, pour the finished soup into the bowls, place the toasted bread slices in them and cover generously with cheese.
Gratinate in the oven for three to five minutes and serve carefully.
If not, simply sprinkle the toasted baguette slices with the cheese and bake on their own for three to five minutes.
Divide the soup into bowls and place the baked bread on top just before serving.
As an alternative, old recipes recommend placing the bread in the soup bowl first and pouring the hot soup over it.
Garnish with some freshly ground pepper and pound in, but don't burn your tongue or fingers!
Better to give a little time - we've had enough of it.
And finally, some good news: My first cookbook "Gar es ohne Bares" will be published on April 11, 2022 and can already be pre-ordered now. Are you looking for more low-cost dishes? Feel free to follow me on Instagram or share a picture using the hashtag #KochenOhneKohle.