ORGNL: Caramelised Onion, Mushroom and Hazelnut Soup

I was watching Tangled the other night. In one of the scenes, the bad mother was going to make hazelnut soup with parsnips for dinner. Hmm...parsnips aren't my thing. So I turned to Google. Mushrooms with hazelnuts, now that sound yummy. Again, I'm thinking everyone has his/her own version of this so why not make one of my own?

Here's the truth - I'm not a fan of soups. Whenever I'm dining out, I don't order it if it's on the menu. I'll have it if it's part of degustation but I won't order it on purpose. Maybe once or twice I've had consommé and having made this before 5 years ago, I know it's labor intensive, so I do appreciate a bowl of clear consommé. Enough said about this and let's get back to the soup. To my surprise, one day my mom actually told me that she likes my French onion soup. It's very simple really but this is for another time. I just thought of combining caramelised onions with mushrooms and hazelnut. I've seen variations of mushroom and hazelnut soup that starts with leeks or shallots, so why not start with onions?

Now that the thinking is done, this is a very simple recipe. It does take some time to cook everything first but aside from that, it's a no brainer. Just make sure to have a blender up and ready.





Ingredients:

2 1/2 brown onions, sliced and caramelised. This will take 10-15 minutes.

400g mix fresh mushrooms, I used chestnuts and medium sized portabellas, sliced and cooked in butter and dried thyme. The dried thyme is optional but good.

1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts

1 tsp porcini powder mixed with 2 cups of vegetable stock - heated in the microwave

1 tablespoon creme fraiche, yogurt will work too

1 cup hot water for adjusting the consistency



Blend all of this in the Vitamix until very smooth. Adjust the taste with some salt and pepper. Serve warm.

I like this because it has a sweet mellow flavour. You won't taste the onions at all. All you have is a very thick, creamy intense mushroom soup. This is completely vegetarian if you omit the creme fraiche and butter. It was a really lovely hearty soup - even for someone who doesn't like soup.

I will definitely try this with leeks or shallots next time but apart from that, I wouldn't change a thing.