Hearty onion soup

After a long walk or a long hike in the fresh air, a big bowl of spicy onion soup is just the thing at this time of year. Actually, the onion soup is a French classic, but today it is slightly modified. In this recipe, the onion soup is enhanced with porcini mushrooms and served with gratinated brown bread and cheese toasts.

Onions are part of the root vegetable family. Whether coarsely or finely chopped, in soups, stews, casseroles or salads, they are popular all year round. Because onions are real flavour carriers and convince with their versatility.

For our soup, onions are cut into fine rings, slowly sautéed in olive oil and caramelized with sugar. Finally, the onions are deglazed with vegetable stock and a little white wine, which give the onion soup a very special taste. A tip: If you like to hunt for mushrooms in autumn, you can dry porcini mushrooms for the cold winter months and thus always have a precious ingredient to refine!

For the onion soup:

• 500 g onion
• approx. 1 l vegetable stock
• 100 ml white wine
• 2-3 tbsp dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tbsp flour to thicken
• 1 bay leaf
• fresh thyme and nutmeg
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil for frying

For the brown bread and cheese toasts:

• a few slices of brown bread
• a few slices of Tyrolean mountain cheese
• Thyme
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Pour 100 ml of hot water over the dried porcini mushrooms and set aside.

For our onion soup, first peel the onion and cut it into fine rings. Sauté them slowly in a little olive oil and caramelize them with sugar. Deglaze the caramelised onions with vegetable stock and a little white wine and bring the soup to the boil. Now add the thyme, nutmeg, the soaked porcini mushrooms and the bay leaf. Let the onion soup simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile you can prepare the brown bread and cheese toasts. To do this, slice the brown bread, cover with Tyrolean mountain cheese, sprinkle with some thyme and pepper, drizzle with a few drops of olive oil and grill in the oven at 185° C for about 10 minutes.

Finally, season the onion soup with salt, pepper and a little thyme and serve with the brown bread and cheese toasts.

You can find more good soups to warm up here. How about a wintery minestrone, a hearty goulash or a real Tyrolean Gerstl soup?