Onion Skin Soup

SOOS! Save our onion skins! This is a nifty little recipe that embraces my ‘waste not’ philosophy and delivers a tasty soup to be proud of.

Reported research suggests that onion’s outer skins provide a rich source of plant compounds called flavonoids, especially the powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound called quercetin. The latter may have beneficial qualities to lower cholesterol, blood pressure and inflammation plus helps fights allergies, treats depression and other conditions. I am no food scientist but if you want to learn more, I’d recommend some Googling.

Onion skin is also responsible for a deep, rich colour to stock. I love it! When making vegetable stock some go to extremes to REMOVE onion skins for a lighter result. Boo.

As with most of my vegetable peelings, I save all my fresh vegetable scraps and freeze them to make vegetable stock. But this recipe has another way to use discarded onion skins as the base of an onion soup.

French Onion Soup? Sure I could make it less ‘Kiwi’ Onion Skin Soup and go for the more authentic French Onion Soup if I raced down country lanes until I found a supermarket that sold crusty French Bread and an array of fancy cheeses (Gruyere, Swiss and Parmesan), but I won’t.

I could even boil up some beef broth, but as a pescatarian I’m not so inclined. With my ‘waste not, want not’ hat on and a determined smile, I proudly present to you my Onion Skin Soup. It tastes delicious and if you were sitting in a street cafe in Paris, as I was just a few months back, you’d probably be delightfully impressed with the comparison regardless of the compromise.

Onion Skin Soup

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 6 onions
• 8 cups water
• 100g butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 cup white wine
• sprig of thyme
• 4 Tbsp sherry or more (or in my case Plum Port)
• 2 chunks of crusty fresh (or stale) bread
• olive oil
• slices of tasty cheese

Method

1. Top and tail 6 onions, reserving both the ends and the outer skin for the broth. (Keep the skinned onions aside for step 2).  Add the skins, along with any other onion scraps that you may have stashed away in your freezer, into the water and simmer over a medium heat for 30 minutes to create your onion-skin stock.  Once simmered you’ll note that the liquid has reduced and have a deep, rich brown colour. Drain – reserving the stock (approximately 6 cups worth) and discard the cooked skins to your compost heap.
2. Finely slice the flesh of only 4 onions (keep the remaining two peeled onions in an airtight container in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner) and saute in butter in a pan until translucent. Try not to brown them!
3. Transfer sauteed onions to a saucepan. Add salt, pepper, sugar and garlic. Saute for a few minutes longer. Add wine, stock and a sprig of thyme that can be removed before serving. Allow to simmer and brew for 30 minutes.
4. Cut chunky bread slices into quarters, drizzle with oil and fan bake until until brown and toasty, like giant croutons.
5. In oven proof soup bowls, divide sherry/port into each bowl (be generous), ladle in soup – ensuring an ample serving of both broth and onion, add baked bread and dunk to the high tide mark so the majority of it is submerged in the onion soup. Add sliced cheese then bake for another 5-10 minutes until cheese is deliciously melted and golden.
6. Mind your hands (use oven gloves to remove from oven), eat and enjoy!

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