Spring Onion Soup

For allium season!

Happy spring, everyone!

It’s finally here after a string of unusually cold and rainy days. I’m still in the mood for soup though, as it’s not so warm yet. Today I’m sharing an outtake from Veg Forward (which will be out in less than three weeks!). There were quite a few recipes that didn’t fit for one reason or another. If you pre-ordered my book, you’ll be getting an opportunity to access NINE more recipes that didn't make it in. I’ll be announcing how to do that in the next week or so. If you haven’t pre-ordered it yet, now’s the time so you can take advantage and receive this beautiful digital booklet!

You might wonder why I needed to cut recipes? Well, there are a lot of reasons, and they’re probably different for each recipe. All of the recipes in a book have to work together as a whole, both thematically and visually. I want to make sure there's plenty of variety, and in this case, the soup looked an awful lot like another soup, so I decided to cut this one. I was already hooked on the other soup and have made it countless times since I first developed the recipe. They are quite different though, so I’m happy to be able to share this one with you here today.

Another reason I initially cut this recipe was that I decided it was a little fussy for the book. So I’ve modified it to make it more streamlined and provided lots of subs. This was actually one of the first recipes I developed for the book, back in spring of 2021, when spring onions of every description were abundant in the NYC greenmarket and at my local Long Island farmstand. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to do with all those onions, so this soup came to mind. I was thinking about French onion soup, but a light, bright, spring-y version. I’m happy to report that you can still make this soup with ingredients from your local supermarket if you don’t have access to a farmers' market. 

These little spring onions are essentially scallions. I just love their color sliced into a salad, and they are another one to throw into the pot for this soup.

Some of the onions from Balsam Farms that first inspired this recipe. The ones on the right are fresh shallots!

To prove it, I made it last night after a quick trip to the market. It had been a while since I’d laid hands on this recipe, and I realized a few details on the not-quite-completed recipe were a bit fuzzy. My local farmstand, Balsam Farms, opens today for the season and I know all the onions will be available, but I had a deadline, and I was happy to test it with regular old leeks and shallots, whose milder flavors are closest to the fresh onions you’ll find this time of year. In the original version of the recipe, I also used garlic scapes and green garlic — but this time, I just used regular garlic (and it was delicious!).

The large amount of onions gives the soup kind of a fluffy texture. Despite everything going in green, the final result is sort of beige, so I like to finish it off with a jolt of green. When I first made this, I used some garlic scape pesto stirred in at the end, and it was fabulous, because it adds another layer of allium flavor. But last night I just puréed a bit of the soup (about a cup) with a handful of raw baby spinach leaves because I had them on hand. It came out great, and I’m looking forward to having it for lunch today.

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Leeks 101

Now’s a good time to remind you that I shared a Cooking Class video tutorial all about leeks earlier this year. Whether you are new to cooking with leeks or you’ve been doing it for decades, you may learn a thing or two!

If you’re a free subscriber and would like access to this or any other paywalled content, click here to upgrade!

Spring Onion Soup

Serves 4

This lovely pale green soup makes the most of the variety of spring onions you’ll find in your farmers’ market this time of year, but you can make it with supermarket onions too. Just go for a variety of alliums like leeks, shallots, scallions, white onions, etc. Whatever you can find! The spring-y green color comes from stirring in some pesto at the end, which adds flavor too. I used garlic scape pesto, but you can use any kind that you made or bought, as long as it’s a nice shade of green. Alternatively, you could also purée about 1 cup of the soup with a handful of parsley, basil, or even baby spinach in a high-speed blender and then stir that back into the soup for that fresh color and flavor.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 stalks green garlic, sliced

• 8 garlic scapes, sliced 1/4-inch thick, or 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

• 3 large shallots, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced (1 heaping cup)

• 2 stalks celery, diced (about 3/4 cup)

• 1 cup sliced leeks (from 1 large or 2 small leeks), green tops removed, halved lengthwise and sliced 

• 2 large spring onions, tops removed, sliced thinly into rings (about 1 cup)

• 1/2 large fennel bulb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)

• Kosher salt

• Black pepper

• 1 ½ cups cooked flageolet beans with 1 cup cooking liquid (instructions below)

• 1 Parmesan rind 

• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock (or 4 cups water and 2 teaspoons Better than Bouillon), plus more if needed

• About 1 tablespoon garlic scape pesto (recipe below, or see headnote for substitutions)

• Shaved Parmesan, for serving

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1. Heat oil in a small (5-quart) Dutch oven or soup pot over medium low heat. Add  green garlic and garlic scapes and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add shallots, celery, and leeks and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until softened. 

2. Raise heat to medium and add onions, fennel, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a few grinds of pepper, cover and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the beans and their liquid, Parmesan rind, and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, partially covered for 15 minutes. Stir in about a tablespoon of garlic scape pesto and serve garnished with shaved Parmesan.

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Garlic Scape Pesto

Makes about 1/2 cup

Garlic scapes are those crazy curly things you may see in your farmers’ market from mid-spring until early summer. They’ll keep well for a couple of weeks in your crisper, so buy now and ask questions later. I like to make this pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays. This makes it very easy to grab a cube to keep those fresh spring flavors going all year long.

• 6 garlic scapes, cut into roughly 1-inch pieces (about 3/4 cup)

• 1 cup (1/2 ounce) Italian parsley and/or basil leaves and soft stems, lightly packed

• 6 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine scapes, herbs, oil, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until nearly smooth. Scrape into a storage container or freeze in ice cube trays. Transfer the cubes to a zip-top bag to use as needed. 

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This is what dried flageolet beans look like after their quick soak. They’re tiny and tender with thin skins and a beautiful pale green color.

To cook the beans:

In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of dry flageolet beans with an ample amount of water. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil for one minute. Turn off the heat and let sit for one hour. Drain, rinse, and return to the same pot. Add 3 cups of water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 3 to 4 lightly smashed garlic cloves. Bring to a boil, turn to a low but visible simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 45 minutes. As the garlic cloves soften, smash them against the side of the pot to break them up. If the liquid starts to cook down too much (meaning it won’t cover the beans by the time they’re done), cover partially with a lid after about 20 minutes. The beans should be about 90 percent done after 40-ish minutes, but remember they'll be cooking a bit more in the soup.

Spring Onion Soup

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Tips and Subs:

• If you don’t have any green garlic or garlic scapes, just use regular garlic cloves instead.

• If you’re not using the spring onions, just double the amount of leeks.

• Add leftover chicken or cooked meatballs to make this an even heartier meal soup. Alternatively, or in addition, you could add small cooked pasta. Try ditalini, tubettini, or elbows.

• Add a sprinkle of any herbs you like to finish (or add to the blender for more flavor). Try dill, chervil, basil, chives, or parsley.

• If you can’t find flageolet beans, use another small dried bean like navy beans, though they may take longer to cook.

• If you don’t want to cook beans, add a can of white beans instead.

• Shave the Parmesan with a vegetable peeler. It gives a different flavor and effect than grated Parmesan.

• Though this is a great way to use farmers' market onions, it works equally well with leeks, shallots, and garlic from the produce aisle.

• Add more liquid at the end if needed. Better for it to be too thick than too thin!

• If you want to make this more like French onion soup, cut a baguette on an angle and top with shaved or grated Parm. Broil until golden. Float one or two croutons in the soup.

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Editor: Molly Ramsey