Home › Soups with Meat, and Purees › Parisian-Spanish Soup
Parisian-Spanish Soup
Chop 4 good-sized onions, and fry them in a tablespoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of sugar until a light golden brown. Put them in a saucepan with 2 quarts of hot stock, add a little minced parsley, a bay leaf, 2 small sweet red peppers, or 3 or 4 whole peppercorns. Boil all together fifteen minutes; add more salt if necessary.
Put thin, crisp slices of toast in the tureen, sprinkle them with pepper, pour the soup over, and serve at once.
A brisk onion soup built on ready-made stock, closer to a French soupe a l'oignon than anything Spanish. It comes together in under half an hour once the onions are browned.
- The hinge is the onionsMost of the soup's character comes from browning 4 onions in a single tablespoon of butter with a teaspoon of sugar. Use a wide heavy pan over medium-low heat and give it 20-30 minutes, stirring often; rushing it on high heat scorches the sugar and turns the broth bitter.
- QuantitiesTwo quarts of stock serves 6-8 as a first course. The recipe says only "hot stock"; a beef or brown veal stock suits it, and a good unsalted beef broth works. Salt only at the end, as the recipe directs.
- Sweet red peppersRead against the alternative of 3 or 4 peppercorns, these are most likely small whole red peppers used as a seasoning rather than fresh bell peppers cut into the soup. Two small dried sweet red peppers, or a teaspoon of sweet paprika stirred into the onions, gives colour and a faint sweetness. The peppercorn alternative makes a plainer, more peppery soup.
- Fifteen minutes is enoughThe stock is already made, so the boiling is only to draw out the aromatics. Longer simmering dulls the onion flavor and cooks the parsley to nothing. Add the parsley in the last few minutes rather than at the start if you want it green.
- Fish out the aromaticsRemove the bay leaf, whole peppers, or peppercorns before serving. Nothing here is strained, so anything left in the pot ends up in a bowl.
- The toastCut the slices thin and dry them hard, in a low oven if you like, so they hold their shape under the liquid. Serve the moment the soup goes over them; a few minutes' standing and they collapse.
- CheeseThe recipe uses none. A little grated Gruyere or dry Parmesan on the toast is not part of this version but is not out of character either.