Onion soup using the leaves?

[Rabidbun]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone had any advice as to making onion soup with the onions themselves and their green leaves?

Never made an onion soup before (if we ignore the rather burned attempt that stuck to the pan around eight years ago ), but I have a rough recipe that mentions trying to use as many different types of onion as possible in it.

I've got two tiny red ones and mostly Senshyu ones. The Senshyu ones however are not quite ready for harvest, so their leaves seem decent - figured they might do for another slightly different onion flavour?

Hope someone can give some advice as to whether it's a mad idea or not!

[rustylady]

Don't see why not - after all when you use spring onions you use the leaves too.

[Rabidbun]

Went on that logic, thanks. Tried it last night with a red onion, three white ones (with all the leaves), chives, sage leaves and garlic scapes with stock. It worked well, though wasn't the traditional brown soup colour!

Added the herbs and other green bits halfway through and cooked them to smithereens. Still seemed to have the onion flavour, though the green bits were a lot milder than the onion itself.

Still pleased that apart from a two inch red onion and the stock I actually managed to get a fully harvested meal from the garden - I'm always reading about the yummy things on here that folks have done with their harvests, but seldom manage most of the ingredients for a meal all at the same time.

[bearded bloke]

It worked well, though wasn't the traditional brown soup colour!

Did you fry the onions in butter until there were just changing colour before adding to the stock ?
To add extra flavour (& colour) try using beef stock in place of the more normal vegetable stock
A few squirts of Worcestershire sauce will "liven it up a bit" & also add colour

[Rabidbun]

Ah, thanks - I did fry in butter, but had the lid on so there was no colour to them before I added the stock. Will have another go, trying those changes, as soon as my other onions get a bit bigger, cheers!

Was very glad I didn't burn this attempt!

[bearded bloke]

Remember to make notes as you go or you will end up like me," ohh that turned out well but what & how much did I bung in ",most important is to have fun with your cooking

[Rabidbun]

Heh, I did that the other day - came up with some lovely chickpea/houmous burger type things and promptly forgot what went in em.

[Snadger]

Do the leaves not go tough and stringy? Was the soup green?

[Rabidbun]

I sliced the leaves across thinly like you would spring onions and they seemed fine (they were really green stems that snapped easily, not sure if that helped reduce any stringyness). They did have a good 15 to 20 minutes slow frying time (added halfway through) and after a further 15 simmering in the stock they were much the same texture as the white onion bulb slices. The soup was a very barely light brown but looked fairly green in the bowl due to all the green onion bits. The only stringy bits I found when I was slicing the leaves - the neck of the onion didn't cut so well for an inch or two so I didn't add that bit.

Got two more that have bolted so might give this another go over the weekend I think.