Fennel and Onion Soup

I confess that every now and then I feel the need to completely make something up and try it out on my friends. More often than not, this happens when I'm trapped inside and running out of ingredients (like this week's meatball, onion, corn, and mashed potato pie. It turned out well, but not so much that I'll embarrass myself by posting it here.) I was grocery shopping with some friends a while back, and the fennel just jumped out at me as something I really wanted to cook again.

I've made a soup with fennel in it before, sure, but it was almost an afterthought in that case. I could barely taste it. If I was going to do another soup with fennel in it, fennel would be the star. People would ea and realize this what fennel actually tastes like.

So I figured out things I would want in a soup, relying heavily on what I hoped would be fairly good instincts from when I made french onion soup before. I have to say that it was an surprisingly good, after some on-the-fly improvisations.

Ingredients:

• 2 large, sweet onions
• 2 fennel bulbs
• 8 ounces of sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• 12 ounces of fresh baby spinach
• 1 cup of shredded or crumbled sharp white cheddar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of fine ground herbes de provence
• About 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 8 to 10 cups water (or stock)
  

Procedure:

1. Cut onions and fennel (just use the bulb, no need to mess with the stalks here) into half-moon slivers as thin as you can manage. If you have particularly thick fennel, now would be when you break out the mandolin slicer if you have one. Basically, the thinner your cuts, the softer and easier this will all cook down into the soup. No one wants to bite into a huge chunk of crunchy fennel in their soup.

2. In a large, wide pot, melt the butter over medium high heat. Nonstick is your friend here, but if you have wine on hand and want to deglaze the pan later, be my guest.

3. When the butter is melted, put in your onions, fennel, salt, and pepper. Stir regularly or as needed to prevent burning. Let them get caramelized to a medium brown. You'll be waiting around for at least 45 minutes to an hour, so find a chair or something.

4. When the onions and fennel are appropriately brown, add the garlic, mushrooms, and herbes de provence. Stir frequently until mushrooms have browned as well.

5. Add water to the pot and stir thoroughly, making sure to scrape the bottom and mix well. If you want even more flavor, feel free to use stock. Use less water for fewer servings with more veggies, more water for more servings with more broth.

6. When the soup has come back up to a simmer, add ginger to taste. You may use more than I suggested, maybe less. It's all about giving that last bit of balance and fullness to the soup, so you know how much you want. Just keep adding, mixing, tasting, and repeating as needed.

7. When the soup has achieved a zen state of balance, add the spinach. It will reduce in a split second. Cook this for only a minute or two, you want the spinach to remain fresh and green tasting.

8. Ladle into bowls and finish with a sprinkling of the white cheddar.

Notes:

1. Your soup may be a different color and have different sized pieces of fennel/onion than mine. I was running out of time for this preparation and had to rush.

2. Adjust water as needed. Make as much or as little as needed. This batch fed five people two servings with a few meals worth of leftovers.

3. If you have wine on hand, deglaze the pan before adding the water. Enough white wine to coat the bottom of the pot should do it, and will do wonders for the soup.

4. This soup has a surprising flavor. It can have quite a kick to it between the pepper, ginger, and licorice-y fennel.

5. Bread goes really well with this soup, as pictured. Spring for a baugette, you won't regret it.

6. Don't be afraid to mess with things in this. Add meat. Add other veggies. Use different herbs. Serve it in a bread bowl. Just have fun with it.