Onion Soup with Walnut Bread Croutons

Nairobi’s weather has been pretty chilly lately. That said, this is me speaking relatively, all my northern hemisphere readers would probably think Nairobi’s current weather is quite pleasant. One really chilly night I need a piping hot soup to stave off the cold. Recently, Susan Kamau on her NTV show “Lets Cook” did an onion soup with cheesy croutons. I looked up lots of recipes for inspiration and came up with the one below.

This soup was great, everyone at my place loved it, it hit the right spot. You should try it.

• 600 grams spanish onions, thinly sliced.
• 1.5 litres of brown chicken stock or vegetable stock.
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour.
• 1 bay leaf.
• 4 sprigs thyme.
• 1 star anise.
• 8 sprigs parsley.
• 20 mls vegetable oil.
• Grated cheese. I used Kiwi cheddar.
• Sliced bread croutons. I used walnut rye bread that I baked.

1. Using kitchen twine, tie the bay leaf, thyme, star anise & parsley together to form a bouquet garni, then set it aside.
2. In a large saucepan, sweat the onions in the vegetable oil. Cook the onions slowly for about 30 minutes until they are caramelised.
3. Add the flour to the caramelised onions, cook the flour for about 4 minutes.
4. Add the stock & bouquet garni, bring it to a boil. Then simmer for 45 minutes.

Assembly

1. Add cheese to bread croutons, melt under a grill.
2. Serve the soup into bowl, top it with two cheese croutons.