English Onion Soup Recipe | Food

Jamie Oliver

Date Published:: 22/10/2007

Jamie:

"There's something so incredibly humble about onion soup. It's absolutely one of my favourites but unfortunately I only ever get to make it in the restaurant or for myself as the missus thinks she's allergic to onions. (She's not, because I whiz them up into loads of dishes without her knowing!)

"If you have the opportunity, get hold of as many different types of onion for this soup as you can - you need about 1kg in total. Sweat them gently and you'll be amazed at all the flavours going on"

Serves 8

Ingredients

A good knob of butter
Olive oil
A good handful of fresh sage leaves, 8 leaves reserved for serving
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
5 red onions, peeled and sliced
3 large white onions, peeled and sliced
3 banana shallots, peeled and sliced
300g of leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 litres of good-quality hot beef, chicken or vegetable stock
8 slices of good-quality stale bread, 2cm thick
200g freshly grated cheddar cheese
Worcestershire sauce

Method: How to make English onion soup with sage and cheddar

1. Put the butter, 2 glugs of olive oil, the sage and garlic into a thick-bottomed, non-stick pan. Stir everything round and add the onions, shallots and leeks. Season with salt and pepper. Place a lid on the pan, leaving it slightly ajar, and cook slowly for 50 minutes, without colouring the vegetables too much. Remove the lid for the last 20 minutes - your onions will become soft and golden. Stir occasionally so that nothing catches on the bottom. Having the patience to cook the onions slowly, slowly, gives you an incredible sweetness and an awesome flavour, so don't be tempted to speed this bit up.

2. When your onions and leeks are lovely and silky, add the stock. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. You can skim any fat off the surface if you like, but I prefer to leave it because it adds good flavour.

3. Preheat the oven or grill to maximum. Toast your bread on both sides. Correct the seasoning of the soup. When it's perfect, ladle it into individual heatproof serving bowls and place them on a baking tray. Tear toasted bread over each bowl to fit it like a lid. Feel free to push and dunk the bread into the soup a bit. Sprinkle with some grated Cheddar and drizzle over a little Worcestershire sauce.

4. Dress your reserved sage leaves with some olive oil and place one on top of each slice of bread. Put the baking tray into the preheated oven or under the grill to melt the cheese until bubbling and golden. Keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't burn! When the cheese is bubbling, very carefully lift out the tray and carry it to the table. Enjoy.

Not quite the warming soup you were looking for? Try these:

Potato, leek and Stilton soup
Cauliflower cheese soup
Dhal soup with pumpkin
Potato and Emmental soup
Chicken, pasta and butter bean soup

Most popular Jamie Oliver recipes:

Pork belly roast
Jamie's fish pie
Jamie's English onion soup
Chilli con carne
Parmesan chicken breasts with crispy posh ham

Recipe taken from Jamie At Home by Jamie Oliver
©Jamie Oliver 200[8]. All rights reserved
Photography © David Loftus. All rights reserved

Buy the book from Amazon

What are your hot tips for cooking onion? share them in Taste My Tips.

Add your comment

Your comments

Post your comment

By posting on this website you are agreeing to abide by our Comments Policy.
Mandatory Fields are marked with *

Display Name: *

Email address: *
(Not displayed)

Your Comment (Maximum characters: 4000) *

You have

characters left

Your website address:
(Optional)

Anonymous:

Back to Previous Page

Comments

Just made this recipe this afternoon....it is REALLY good. I usually make a French Onion soup with very caramelized onions & port. This one was a nice departure with the mix of onions, leeks etc. My only warning would be to stick to the note that says to use about 1kg in total of onions. If I had just followed the number of onions, I would have had 3 times the onions called for!!! Red onions in North America are large, so I can't imagine using 5!!! I used 2 large white & 1 large red, 3 large shallots & the white of 1 large leek.

Posted by Tanya on 23/11/2009 03:53:14

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
my mom totally love to try this she looking forward in cooking an onion soup!!!!i gonna teach her how to cook

Posted by mark on 19/11/2009 05:17:15

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
Ann a member of the staff of WA's Heart Foundation 2009 Winter Soup Club made this wonderful onion soup in July this year to rave reviews from her colleagues and me. I luckily am a volunteer on once weekly soup day. Three members bring in soup in a slow cooker and one brings in some crusty breads. We all make a further donation of $2 each time which goes to the Volunteer Soup Kitchen Group.

Posted by Flinty on 26/10/2009 04:05:20

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
Are you adding salt? Salt brings out the water in onions so that may be where you are going wrong. Also, I have just done this recipe but instead of frying on the stove I melted butter an olive oil and just softened the leeks/onions and then finished off at 150 degrees in the oven until brown - about an hour...happy cooking!

Posted by N on 11/10/2009 18:04:33

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
So now that there are no jobs for us graduates and we have even less money - my evenings out have become evenings in with Jamie's recipe's. I always seem to get it not quite right though... With this one I seem to end up with too much water coming naturally from the onions and leeks and they find it very difficult to become golden brown as they begin to simmer and then later boil rather than slow fry. It ends up being more of a stew before I have even put the stock in. Does anybody know where I am going wrong please?

Posted by Unemployed graduate on 07/10/2009 15:38:59

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
As an alternative to cream cheese in a cheesecake try using McDougalls Cheesecake Mix - it's sold in 2 kg boxes for the catering trade in cash & carry's. You can make your own bases and add whatever fruit, etc. you fancy.

Posted by Phil Lindquist on 07/09/2009 19:35:36

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
I have spent thirty minutes trying to get an onion soup recipe from come dine with me extra portions series 2 episode 32. I continually end up with Jamie Olivers recipes. I enjoy the programme come dine with me extra portions but find it almost impossible to access their recipes. I do not want recipes from chefs. I can obtain them from recipe books.

Posted by maria wilson on 19/08/2009 11:41:52

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
l love all cheesecakes but my friend cannot take cream cheese in a cheese cake does any one know of a ingreadient in place of cream cheese that l can use

Posted by leonard thomas on 06/08/2009 16:33:01

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
The symptoms when most people think they are allergic to onions are just the natural healing properties of the onions taking effect. E.g. Antifungal, Antibiotic, Anticatahral...hence good for yeast infections, intestine dysbosis and they don't half make your nose run!

Posted by Sb on 01/02/2009 19:20:57

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment
this receipe is just fantastic and easy to follow dont know why i did not does this before nowits a life saver

Posted by pete hitchin on 01/01/2009 20:28:55

Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment

Jamie Oliver English onion soup with sage and Cheddar recipe

Jamie:

Serves 8

Ingredients

Method: How to make English onion soup with sage and cheddar

Not quite the warming soup you were looking for? Try these:

Most popular Jamie Oliver recipes:

More Jamie Oliver Recipes

Your Comments

Comments closed

Your comments

Comments

Comments

Indian recipes from Gordon

Recipe Finder

Advertisement

More Cheddar Recipes

More Onion Recipes

More Soup Recipes

Jamie at Home quiz

Missed a show? Get onto 4oD

Jamie at Home

Growing Guides

Food for thought

Advertisement