"Country Style" Onion Soup

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A light but surprisingly rich onion soup. Suitable for a simple lunch or dinner if served with a hearty bread (sourdough is best) and a salad and some milk, or use it as the soup course for a big dinner and impress everyone. My dad calls it "country style" because he was served something very like it (although, he thinks, made with chicken or beef stock) while staying with friends in the French countryside. Try to find butter with the ingredients "sweet cream" or "cream, salt"; it will taste much better. Use home-made veggie stock if possible, or, if you must, canned, but taste carefully before salting in that case! About four servings.

Ingredients

  • 3 small white or brown onions, or 2 very large, or about 2 1/2 medium (sweet onions are especially good)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted (or salted, if you must) butter
  • About 1/4 to 1/3 cup flour (two small fistfulls)
  • About 2 cups home-made veggie stock (or two cans or so canned), or substitute home-made (or low-sodium canned) chicken stock or broth
  • Water
  • Salt

Directions

  1. Slice onions in half latitudinally, peel, cut off tops. Cut in half again, the other way. Turn on the flat side and cut each quarter into thirds or fourths, to get fairly uniform, fairly thin half-rings of onion.
  2. In a sturdy saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't separate.
  3. Just before butter melts completely, add onions. Cook, stirring fairly frequently, until they are soft, clear, and just on the edge of carmelizing.
  4. Add flour all at once to the middle of the pan. Carefully and evenly work onions and butter into the flour, stirring constantly, until all onions are completely coated with flour-butter paste.
  5. Cook this mixture, stirring constantly, until it is a medium golden-brown.
  6. Add stock slowly while stirring to avoid lumps.
  7. Add water until soup is just a little thinner than desired consistency (about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups, to taste). Salt lightly.
  8. Cover, and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat to medium.
  9. Simmer, partially covered, about 20 minutes or until soup is desired consistency.
  10. Taste for seasoning and salt to taste.

This recipe was submitted by ketchupqueen on April 9, 2005.

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