Again, I swear I make more than soups, but 'tis the season! There's nothing better than warm, savory soup on winter's first evening. With Christmas just days away, and teachers on their winter breaks, I have been feeling especially inspired to try new recipes with my well-deserved free time.
As I stated in a previous blog post, French Onion Soup is my absolute favorite. When I stumbled upon a French Onion Chowder photo on Instagram by @rabbitandwolves, I nearly went cross-eyed. Its golden color, creamy looking texture, and crispy seasoned oyster crackers caught my attention. Her recipes are vegan, so I immediately imagined how I could alter her recipe into something my whole family would enjoy. I did some research on heavy cream vs. milk (I decided to go with milk, hoping to be a TAD healthier), and got to work the next day. After eating the finished product, there are a few things I added, changed, or would like to change for next time.
Quick breakdown of recipe:
1/4 cup butter
4 large onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
2 fresh sprigs of thyme
1 cup of white wine
2 large potatoes
7 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of milk
3 tbs. cornstarch
salt and pepper
I ended up adding: a squirt of lemon for acid, an extra potato, 2 splashes of Worcestershire sauce, and >1 tsp of potato starch. What I would change for next time: Less wine (probably 1/2 cup) and heavy cream instead of milk for a thicker chowder (would need to calculate how much).
1. Heat the butter. Sauté onions for about 30 minutes.
2. Add minced garlic, bay leaves, thyme, diced potatoes (all one size), wine and cook 10 minutes.
3. Add cornstarch and toss ingredients around in it.
4. Add broth and milk and cook an additional 20 minutes or until potatoes are fully cooked. This is where I tasted it and added a little lemon and Worch. Add salt and pepper as needed.
5. Carefully ladle about half of the soup into a blender (I used a food processor and did this in batches), and then add back to the soup. I ended up adding the potato starch by taking a small amount of the soup and stirring it into that. This creates a thickening slurry. I would have liked the soup a tad thicker.
But, the flavors were there. So I served! Yum.
Thank you @rabbitandwolves for the inspiration!