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Sweet Onion Soup

A soup made with sweet onions, garlic, sugar, flour, vegetable broth, white wine, sage, bay leaf, and optional sour cream and chives.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Sweet Onion Soup

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Spray a large saucepan with low fat cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes.

  2. Reduce heat to medium‑low then stir in sugar. Cook for about 15 minutes or until onions start to caramelize. Stir in the flour and continue to cook for 2 minutes.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the broth, wine, sage and bay leaf. Heat to boiling then reduce heat to medium‑low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve in bowls with 1 tablespoon of nonfat sour cream and a sprinkling of chives.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories
32 gProtein
2 gFat
126 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Sage1 tsp ground (0.7g)2
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Chive1 tbsp (3g)1

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Garlic + sagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet onion
Slow cooking softens the onions and, with sugar, develops sweetness and deep flavour as they caramelize.
All-purpose flour
Cooked into the onions, it thickens the broth as it is added and gives the soup body.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the broth during simmering.
Vegetable broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the flavour of the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Caramelizing the onions. Cooking the onions slowly over medium-low heat lets their natural sugars brown gradually. Rushing with high heat can scorch them and leave a bitter taste instead of sweetness.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, clove, garlic, sugar, flour, white wine, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, garlic, sugar, flour, white wine, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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