We’re just back from touring Southern Spain for a few days, returning from the lovely sunshine and good wine to a UK weather warning for snow on Easter Monday and a surplus of onions in the kitchen! It seemed that the only decent thing to do was attempt to create the delicious onion soup I ate one afternoon in a restaurant in Ronda. I’m not sure how close this recipe is to the real deal, but it certainly tastes like the restaurant version and was made entirely from ingredients already in the house. With a generous helping of croutons it reminds me of my Grandma’s gravy that has evolved into a hearty meal in its own right and feels very well suited to our chilly British climate.

I’m pretty sure that the traditional method for making this would be to oven-bake the soup with the egg in, but my serving bowls aren’t oven safe so my version incorporates a microwave cheat. You could oven bake them to reheat and then to cook the eggs in the hot soup if you prefer.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients

1 kg onions (This seems a lot, but the restaurant version had a lot in)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Splash of red wine
1 large fresh tomato, blended to a pulp (tinned would be fine too)
1 litre beef stock (I used 2 beef oxo cubes in boiling water, but you could use vegetable stock if you prefer)
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil

To Serve

1 egg per person
Grated cheese
Croutons (bread and olive oil, see below)

Method – Soup:

1. Peel and slice onions. They need to remain quite chunky – see photos.
2. Heat oil and butter over medium heat in large saucepan.
3. Add onions, garlic, rosemary and a few grinds of salt and pepper and cook for 15-20 minutes until golden and caramelised. This is important to give the soup its rich flavour.
4. While the onions cook, make the croutons (see below)
5. Once the onions are nicely caramelised (but not burnt) add a splash of red wine. Cook for a minute longer.
6. Add the tomato. Cook 2 mins more until the liquid has evaporated.
7. Add the stock and paprika.
8. Simmer 5 mins, then remove soup from heat and leave to rest.
9. To serve, reheat soup in serving bowls until boiling (I microwaved them for a couple of minutes on full power), then crack an egg into each.
10. Prick the yolk with a fork (so that it doesn’t burst) then microwave on full power in 30 sec bursts until the egg is cooked. (Mine took 2.5 minutes in total but this will depend on your bowls, microwave and portion sizes!)
11. Sprinkle croutons in and serve immediately.

Method – Croutons

1. Preheat oven to gas 6 / 180c
2. Cut bread (bloomer or sourdough type) into 2-3cm cubes/chunks
3. Drizzle with olive oil and mix until lightly coated
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden
5. Cool