How to Make Homemade Decadent Cream of Caramelized Onion Soup

It has been a busy day today in the kitchen.  Bread was made, tater tots were made and then along comes the need for cream of onion soup for a recipe that I'm posting tomorrow.  I was challenged to make a better and healthier version of tater tot casserole.  Yes.  That icky casserole that a lot of people are fond of that contains frozen veggies, preservative and salt laden canned soup and processed tater tots that people assemble at home and refer to it as homemade instead of what it really is... home assembled.  I would eat a can of cat food before I ate that casserole with those processed ingredients, but that's just me.  I love food, but  over the years, that love has evolved into where I love GOOD food.

This soup served two purposes for me.  Lunch today and it will also be used to make the casserole tomorrow.  It's creamy, full of caramelized onion flavor and if a soup can be stunning, this one would be exactly that.

Caramelizing the onion is the longest part of this recipe because it's a step that simply can not be rushed.  I liken the excitement of this step to watching paint dry.  Until you see that first little sign of browning, it is a very boring half hour.

Once the onions have caramelized, you are home free from there and the rest of the process goes extremely quick.  Ten minutes later, you are sitting down to try one of the best cream of onion soups to ever come out of your kitchen.

This can be made a day or two in advance and chilled in the fridge.  Warm it up on the stove instead of the microwave for an even reheat, it's a bit thicker since it is a "cream of something" soup.  Use it instead of the canned soups in your casseroles and you will definitely taste the difference.

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter (NOT margarine)

4 large white or yellow onions

A scant pinch of sugar

1 large (or 2 small) cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons flour

2 cups WHOLE milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons full fat sour cream (if you try to use low or reduced fat, it won't work)
salt and pepper to your taste
fresh flat leaf parsley (optional for garnish)

Prep time: 15 minutes     Cook time: 45 minutes     Ready in:   1 hour     Yields: approx 4, 1 cup servings

How to Make Homemade Decadent Cream of Onion Soup

Start with peeling and slicing the 4 onions.  You want a thin slice but not paper thin.  A little under 1/4" slices will be just perfect.

Melt the butter in the pan over medium heat.  Add all of the onions and sprinkle the scant pinch of sugar over the top.  Be VERY careful not to add too much sugar.  It is meant to help brown the onions quicker, not to add any sweetness.  Too much sugar will give you sweetness in the soup and you don't want that.

Stir the onions to break them up and distribute the sugar.  Turn the heat down to low and this is the start of the longest part of the recipe.  Caramelizing the onions.

The top photo is about 5 minutes in.  You'll want to stir the onions every few minutes.  The bottom photo is about 10 minutes in and they still aren't done yet.

15 minutes and 20 minutes into the caramelization.  So close but not there yet!  Keep stirring.

25 minutes after starting, the onions are ready.  They are beautifully brown enough for the soup.  They still have some of their firmness but are extremely soft.

The rest of the soup preparation goes extremely quick.  Add the minced garlic and stir until you can smell the garlic.  You don't want to brown the garlic, just open up the smell and flavor.

Turn the heat up on the burner to medium.  Add the flour and stir for approximately 1 minute to cook the flour.

Add the whole milk, one cup at a time while constantly stirring.  The soup will start to thicken.  Add the cream and continue to stir.

Add the sour cream and stir until it is dissolved into the soup.  Keep stirring until the soup is thick.

Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

That's it.  Your soup is done!

If you are eating this soup as a meal, ladle it into bowls and garnish with fresh flat leaf parsley if you want.  If you are going to be using it in a casserole or for cooking, ladle it into 1 cup portions and put into the refrigerator.  Use within the next few days.

Happy eating my friends!  If you try this, please let me know what you thought about it.

How to Make Fresh Home Made Garden Vegetable Soup with Eggs

Eggs can be added to different dishes to add a little something different. In this soup, I added the eggs as an extra source of protein. It made sense to me since the broth base is chicken, the rest of the ingredients are vegetables and honestly, it just sounded good. The eggs are able to not only stand up to the vegetables, but they contribute very nicely to the flavor and texture of the soup.

The yolk of the eggs adds an extra creamy layer to this soup and blends in well with the broth, basil and other ingredients. I know that soup is usually enjoyed in the chillier months of the year, but this one can be served hot or chilled to blend in with the current season. Of course it's thicker when it's served chilled but still nice and very yummy.

This type of soup is a great and unusual way to help utilize any extra eggs that you may have from your chickens or from a sale that you took advantage of at the grocery store.

The ingredients can be modified to whatever you have on hand along with what is in season. Experiment with local, in season vegetables instead of boxed, bagged or canned ingredients. You'll notice a popular vegetable is missing in this version of our soup, corn. It's because right now it is not in season in Indiana and our corn isn't being harvested quite yet.

In the fall, I would omit the spring vegetables and use things like carrots, turnips, sugar snap peas and anything else that is ready to harvest that you have on hand or in the garden. Vegetable soup is extremely versatile and home made is so much better than out of a can without as much work as you would think.

Vegetable soup freezes very well in a plastic freezer bag. You can make the soup, minus the eggs and freeze in single servings to defrost another day. This is especially nice once these vegetables have spent their harvest and are no longer available in the area.

Keep it simple and that keeps it easy and fantastic! That's exactly what home made garden vegetable soup should be. Simple, easy and fantastic.

Ingredients for the Soup as Pictured

• 32 ounces of chicken broth
• 2 medium size potatoes
• 1/2-pound cherry tomatoes
• a handful of Chinese long beans
• a handful of fresh green beans
• 1 onion bulb and top
• a handful of fresh basil
• 2 okra pods
• 4 chicken eggs
• 1/2 cup barley

How Long Does it Take?

Prep time: about 30 minutes    Cook time:  about an hour   Yields:  3 VERY generous servings

How to Put it All Together

All of the vegetables will need to be washed and roughly chopped. I leave the skin on the potatoes because I happen to like that but you can peel them first if you don't. Leave the skin on the cherry tomatoes to keep them together during the cooking. If you remove the skin they will disappear in the soup!

Test your eggs to make sure they are fresh, there is a video on the sidebar (<----over that way) that will show you how if you don't know. Hard boil the eggs then put them into an ice bath until you are ready to peel them.

While the eggs are cooking, pour the chicken stock into your soup pan and add the onion, potatoes and basil. Do the first seasoning of salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 20 minutes. (Your eggs should be ready for the ice bath about now.)

Add the rest of the ingredients and turn the fire to about medium/low heat. Just enough to keep it at a nice simmer for about 40 minutes.

Drain and peel the eggs while the soup is cooking. Periodically stir the soup to keep anything from sticking. Since there is only 32 ounces of broth, this will be a very chunky soup as some of the broth liquid evaporates with the heat.

Cut the eggs in half and set them aside. By now the soup will have thickened up a bit because of the potatoes. If you can't resist the urge to press the cherry tomatoes to the side of the pan and pop them, go ahead because they shouldn't fall apart and disappear at this point. You'll do your final salt and peppering to taste here.

Scoop the soup out into bowls and top with the boiled egg halves. I suggest nipping the egg pieces with the spoon to get a little piece in every bite. It really is a fantastic ingredient in home made vegetable soup!

Add a nice garlic cheese flat bread, home made bread (my homemade wheat bread recipe is HERE) or crackers and you have a nice, healthy meal that won't weigh you down or make you feel like you just ate half the grocery store!

The last thing you'll need to do is enjoy it. Share it with friends. Share it with family. They will love you for it!  Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers to enjoy later.

My Twist on Eggs in Purgatory- Tomato Stew with Poached Eggs and Blue Cheese

Since we have chickens, we always have fresh eggs.  I despise food waste about as much as I dislike eating breakfast every morning so sometimes I have to find creative ways to get eggs into other meals throughout the day to keep from having to throw them away.  I know, I know... some people would be happy to have that problem.

This is my take on the classic "Eggs in Purgatory."  I changed a few things in the recipe to suit what we actually like in this house and I got it right for us so I thought I'd share this one with you so you can make it for yourself.

There are no fresh tomatoes right now so I had to use a can (GASP!) that I picked up at the grocery.  It will still be a few months before the tomato plants start producing and I can put away enough of them to last a full year.  I can't wait to taste this with fresh tomatoes.

If you don't have access to freshly made blue cheese, I suggest trying freshly grated parmesan in this recipe.  Please do NOT use the powdered crap out of a can, it's really just not the same.

Ingredients

• 28 ounces of crushed or diced tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 Tablespoons basil (I used purple)
• 1 Tablespoon oregano
• Salt and pepper to your taste
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• Fresh blue cheese

Prep time: 5 minutes  Cook time: about 30 minutes  Yields: 4 servings

How to Put it Together

 
Choose a pan that is wide and deep at the sides.  A nice iron skillet or large frying pan will work for this.  On medium heat, put the olive oil into the pan and let it heat up.

Once the oil has heated up, add your garlic slices.  Stir them around a bit and let them cook for a minute or tow.  DO NOT let them brown.

Add your tomatoes and stir.

Add the salt, pepper, scallions, onion, basil and oregano and give it a stir.

This is what it should look like once everything is added and stirred in.

Cover it with a lid and turn the heat down to medium low.  All it to simmer for about 20 minutes but do stir it occasionally.  You want the herbs to infuse and the tomatoes to cook.

This is what it should look like once it has simmered.  Sorry the pic does look a bit blurry in the middle, that's the steam.

Now it is time to add the eggs!  Crack an egg into a small bowl or measuring cup.  Let the lip of the bowl/cup go a tiny bit into the tomato stew and then slightly tip it forward while the egg slides out.  The tipping will cause some of the egg white to cover the yolk.  Do this with all four eggs in different areas of the pan.

Allow the eggs to poach in the stew for a few minutes until they are as done as you like them.

While the eggs are poaching, you can get the blue cheese ready.  I personally like crumbles so I sliced off the amount that I wanted and crumbled them up.

When the eggs are done, it is ready to eat.

Spoon out the tomato stew and top with the egg.  Right before serving, add in the blue cheese crumbles and enjoy the yummy!