Cafe Liz

Onion vegetable soup

I guess I got a little overexcited at the shook today, because now the kitchen floor is covered with bags of vegetables that won’t fit into our fridge, including 6 kilos of potatoes for our planned latke bonanza (among many, many other things). In any case, there’s no better reason to use lots of fresh vegetables, so I scratched the surface and whipped up this onion vegetable soup.

Much of the flavor comes from frying the onions until they’re a crispy brown — well past the translucent stage.

3 onions
6 garlic cloves
1 large potato
2 carrots
1 medium-sized zucchini
700 grams pumpkin
1 T salt
1/2 t pepper
1/4 t nutmeg
12 sprigs (or more) fresh thyme
Several tablespoons of olive oil

Slice the onions into thin slivers, and start frying them in a thick-bottomed pot with a few tablespoons of oil. In order for the onions to fry properly, you need more oil than you’d use if you were just sauteeing them — there needs to be some oil on the bottom of the pot, not just coating the onions. Fry on a medium-high flame until many of the onion slices are a rich brown (but don’t let them burn!).

Add the chopped garlic, let fry some more on a lower flame, and then add the potatoes and carrots, chopped into small cubes (I don’t peel them). Let things fry a bit. Then add the zucchini and pumpkin, also chopped into cubes. Cover the vegetables with water, put a lid on the pot, and let it boil until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.

Now, blend the soup with a stick blender, either fully or partially, depending whether you want vegetable chunks (I blended my soup about halfway). Add the salt and the spices, mix them in, and adjust to taste. Serve with a nice, toasted roll and a salad.

PEAR ALMOND SALAD

I made a nice salad out of lettuce, mixed greens (including beet leaves, spinach and arugula, among others), chives, a big mushroom, a chopped pear (peel and all), and toasted almonds, with a dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. We quite enjoyed it.

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