Sweet Onion Umami Power Soup

This is, dare I say it, a much needed elevation of classic french onion soup. It’s a big old heartwarming hug of umami — which, as I recently learned, is a flavour group which helps to release dopamine. So it’s certainly a welcome dish for the colder darker months. This recipe makes 4 portions, but can obviously be divided to cook two. It is slightly laborious with the slicing of the onions but once that’s done it’s plain sailing all the way to flavour town. Make sure you wash your hands with cold water after slicing all those onions to ensure you don’t cook the smell of them into your hands, and whatever you do, don’t work on your laptop whilst simultaneously slicing and cooking, because mine now stinks of raw onion.

For this you will need —

1 X Bottle of Beer (I used a porter, a stout or Ale would also work nicely, just not a larger!)

10 Large Spanish onions

4 Garlic Cloves

125G butter (or Vegan Spread)

15G soy sauce

15G Powdered veg stock

800 ML Chicken or Veg Stock

20G Miso

2 Tsp Marmite or Vegemite

15G Brown Sugar

30G Wholegrain Mustard

1 Bay Leaf

Add the butter to the pan with some oil and put pan on a low heat until the butter starts foaming then tip in all the onions, turn down the heat and pop a lid on it, then cook them on a low to medium heat for a good 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are nice and soft and starting to caramelise and turn golden.

Once they are starting to look nice and sexy & caramelised, throw in the sugar and the sliced garlic, put the lid back on, keep cooking and stirring for another 10–15 minutes or longer until they are nice and golden brown. Make sure to lift the lid and inhale every now and again because it’s just simply one of the best smells ever.

Once the onions are golden brown gradually work the flour into the mix. Make sure you add slowly and stir the flour thoroughly into the mix. Once it’s all in there proceed to cook it out for about 3 minutes stirring it around to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

When three minutes have passed add the powdered veg stock, miso, Marmite (or Vegimite), bay leaf, mustard, and soy sauce before stirring them thoroughly into the mixture. Now slowly add the beer whilst stirring the mix. Make sure you mix everything together well so you don’t find surprise pockets of mustard or miso or marmite — as much as I love all these things, they can be a bit intense when you get a surprise visit from one!

Once all the beer is in there, turn up the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes. It’s important to keep stirring the soup at this stage as due to the flour content there’s a high risk of it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Now slowly add the stock to your pan whilst stirring to ensure it all blends together nicely. Once all the stock has been added bring it to the boil, before turning it down to a low heat and letting it cook out for 45 mins or so, stirring it occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Thennnnn bingo — A big Umami hug in flavour town awaits.

As with most soups and stews, if you leave this overnight something magical will happen and it will be even tastier than before the day before.