To serve, bring the tomato soup to steaming point and stir in the cooked pasta. Divide among bowls, then top with the meatballs and scatter finely grated Parmesan and chopped parsley over the top. Add the tomatoes and sugar, season with more salt and pepper, and cook over a medium to high heat, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are melted through the sauce. Add the cream and boil for 3 minutes, then take off the heat. For this, the first instalment of my column, the recipe that I’m sharing with you is a curried butternut squash soup. Butternut squash is a perfect vehicle for spices and creamy coconut, and this silky smooth soup has some great gutsy flavours – just what we need right now. I adore the spicy pumpkin seed oil drizzled over the top for a contrast of textures. This is a super soup for making a large batch and freezing for a rainy day. Use other pumpkins or sweet potato in place of butternut if you wish. Finally, multigrain bread is also a good source of various minerals, including magnesium, iron, and selenium.

TO FREEZE: Freeze soup in an airtight, freezer-safe storage container for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. TO COOK IN INDIVIDUAL CASSEROLE DISHES: Instead of toasting the bread separately, ladle the cooked soup into individual broiler-safe dishes. Lay a bread slice on top (no need to brush with oil) and sprinkle with cheese. Broil 1 to 2 minutes, until the cheese is melted and browned. French onion soup tastes like sweet caramelized onions, with intense savory notes from beef broth, wine, and brandy. Add part of the salt, then reduce the heat to medium low. Cook and stir until caramelized—this will take 45 minutes or longer. WORTH IT. Please join me on this soup adventure here at the Happy Foodie for the next six months; I’m looking forward to seeing lots of photos of your great soups, broths and breads. Just tag me at @rachelallencooks.Proof that soups are not just for winter. Bright, zesty and fresh. Comforting like Rachel herself'NADIYA HUSSAIN While the bread is toasting, you will add oil to a large skillet, and begin sauteing your garlic until it just starts to become fragrant.

Her 14 hugely successful cookbooks have sold over a million copies worldwide, and she has written for numerous magazines and newspapers including the Irish Mail on Sunday, the Sunday Tribune, Delicious, Olive, BBC Good Food, and her ongoing weekly food column for the Irish Sunday Independent. Rachel currently hosts RTE's The Restaurant with Marco Pierre White, and her TV series for the BBC and RTE (which include Rachel's Favourite Food, Bake, Easy Meals, Cake and Rachel's Everyday Kitchen) have been broadcast in over 30 different countries. She has also been a guest on multiple international programmes, including NBC's Today. Sugar. a classic French onion soup requires onions that are caramelized in sugar. Sugar is your worst enemy on keto since it is pure carbs. Only 10 grams is 10 grams of net carbs! While the potatoes and onions are cooking, prepare the sprouts. Trim the base, remove and discard the outer two or three leaves, and slice the sprouts thinly. Set aside. If you’re looking for the best bread for French onion soup, look no further than a crusty loaf of French bread. To toast the fennel seeds, place them in a dry frying pan over a medium to high heat and cook for about a minute, until fragrant and a couple of shades darker. Tip them out of the pan immediately and crush, using an electric spice grinder or a pestle and mortar. You can use ready-ground fennel but it might not taste as fresh and fragrant, in which case use slightly more, to taste.To Store. Refrigerate soup in an airtight storage container for up to 3 days. Store bread separately in an airtight storage container at room temperature. While stories as to who first made it abound (was it Louis XV at his hunting lodge? Duke of Lorraine, father of the Queen of France?), its rise to popularity is rooted in practicality—onions were in expensive, making the soup economical. Whisk the egg and mix with the pumpkin purée and milk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients, then, with your hand in a claw shape, mix the two, making sure you don’t knead but just mixing until it comes together.

French onion soup is actually French (like this classic French Beef Bourguignon or French Omelette), and it remains popular in France to this day. Who is the author: World-renowned chef and cookery writer Rachel Allen teaches at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. Her cookbooks have sold over a million copies worldwide and she has hosted numerous accompanying TV series. Let me show you how to select the ingredients to make a keto low-carb French onion soup. Soup IngredientsCut the pumpkin into 1–2cm chunks and place on a roasting tray. Drizzle with the olive oil and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, until completely tender. Tip the pumpkin into a bowl (leaving the oven on) and mash very well with a fork, or blend in a food processor, then allow to cool. If using canned pumpkin purée, you’ll need 125g. You have options! But you also have swizzles upon swizzles of rich olive oil and peppery torn basil and deep tomato flavor that already tastes like bread dips. You really are set.

White wine. White wine is used to deglaze the onions. You can have some dry white wine on keto if used in moderation, but unfortunately, the classic French onion soup uses quite a good amount, which brings the carbs very high. Put the coconut oil into a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onions, butternut squash and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and stir to mix. Turn the heat down to low, cover the vegetables with a piece of parchment paper and the saucepan lid, and allow to cook slowly for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time, until they are tender. The first time I saw this recipe, I couldn't figure out what it was. Is it a soup? Casserole? Breakfast? Lunch? It didn't make sense. Another fun story: apparently the strong scent of the Gruyère cheese on top masked the smell of alcohol from the night before, and it was a popular hangover food.)Now shape the remaining mixture into meatballs, each about 15g in weight – you should get about 26 balls altogether. Fry them in the olive oil over a medium heat, turning them regularly, until they’re cooked on the inside (they’ll have a firm spring) and golden all over. Just as every cook needs good soup in their repertoire, this book will be a must-have source of inspiration for every kitchen shelf. It is super easy to make an onion soup. First, heat the butter, add finely sliced white onion, and cook for 20-25 minutes until soft, brown, and fragrant. TO REHEAT: Rewarm leftovers in a pot on the stovetop over medium-low heat or in the microwave. If desired, toast leftover bread on a baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees.