White Onion Soup (Irish)
Submitted by grammysan5
Creamy Irish white onion soup with butter-softened onions, cloves, nutmeg, and a swirl of cream. A gentle, warming soup that’s ready in 20 minutes and tastes like a cozy evening by the fire.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
10 minREADY
20 minThis isn’t the caramelized, cheese-crusted French version. This is its quieter Irish cousin, and it’s gorgeous in its own right.
Sliced onions cook gently in foaming butter with whole cloves until they go silky and translucent, with no browning at all.
A sprinkle of flour thickens things up, then stock and milk come together into a velvety, pale soup scented with nutmeg and bay leaf.
Finish it with a pour of cream and a scatter of grated cheese, and you’ve got something that warms you from the inside out on a grey, damp evening.
You can blend it smooth or leave the onion slices whole for more texture. Grand either way, so it is.
Kitchen Tips
- Keep the heat low when softening the onions. Any colour at all changes the flavour and appearance of this soup. You want them pale and sweet.
- Remove the cloves and bay leaf before serving or blending. They’ve done their job and biting into a whole clove is no one’s idea of fun.
- Add the milk gradually and stir constantly to avoid lumps forming in the flour-thickened base.
- A pinch of mace can stand in for nutmeg if that’s what you have. They come from the same plant and the flavour is close.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the butter, and when foaming add the onions and cloves.
Let the onions soften, but not color at all.
Sprinkle over the flour, mix well and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute; then add the nutmeg, the bay leaf and the stock.
Stir all the time until it boils, and see that it is smooth.
Simmer until the onions are cooked, then gradually add the milk, stirring, and when that boils lift out the cloves and bay leaf.
It can now be liquidized, or served as is with the cream added, and a sprinkling of grated cheese.
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