Recipes: Harry's French Onion Soup and Banana Pancakes

HARRY’S FRENCH ONION SOUP Recipe by The Gibraltar Vegan, follow http://www.instagram.com/ thegibraltarvegan for updates

I never met Grandad Harry, but the family always talks about how much he loved his French Onion Soup. In honour of him, I have called this warm, fragrant soup after him.

Whoever decided to make a soup better by putting cheese on it should win the Nobel prize for inventions in cooking, if there is such a thing, which incidentally, there isn’t – I checked! While vegan cheese can be difficult to melt and have the same look as dairy cheese, the taste is what is really important in a good soup, not the look.

INGREDIENTS • 2 large onions • 2 lt vegetable stock • 250ml red wine • 2 tbsp plain flour • 4 tbsp vegan butter • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil • 1 tbsp thyme • 5 gloves of chopped garlic • 3 bay leaves • Pinch salt and pepper 1 French baguette 100g vegan mozzarella (I used Sheese which is available in Eroski)

METHOD

1. Place the vegan butter and extra virgin olive oil into a large saucepan and melt the two together. 2. Finely slice your onions and add these to the butter and oil. Make sure you mix it well so that the onions are nicely coated with the mixture.

3. Once they are lightly sautéed, turn down the heat and let the onions caramelise. This will take 15 minutes or so. Stir the onions to cook them evenly. 4. Turn the heat up and caramelise the onions further until they are golden in colour. 5. Pour in the red wine and stir. Boil this until the wine has pretty much evaporated. 6. Add the flour and coat the onions with this. Keep stirring and cook for two minutes.

7. Add the chopped garlic and cook for another two minutes. Stir occasionally.

8. Add the vegetable stock, bay leaves, thyme and salt and pepper

9. Bring the soup to the boil and let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

10. In the meantime, slice the French baguette and toast each piece lightly under the grill.

11. Once your soup is ready, pour into a soup bowl, place the toasted bread on top and add the cheese. Place the bowl under the grill to melt the cheese. Be very careful as the soup bowl will be exceptionally hot.

12. Serve and enjoy. *For illustration purposes the photograph of the soup does not have a complete bread ‘lid’ as you would expect. This was to show the actual soup underneath. Normally I would use more bread and certainly a lot more cheese.

BANANA

PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS:

Pancakes

• 150G Flour • 1Tsp Baking Powder • 2 Soft Bananas • 200ML Almond Milk

Topping Suggestions

• Maple Syrup / Agave Syrup • Strawberries • Blueberries • Banana • Dark Chocolate

METHOD:

1. You will need to prepare the pancakes ingredients seperately. In one bowl mix together the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, mash together peeled bananas, so that you have a paste. 2. Add the milk to the bananas and stir together, Once runny mix this with th edry ingredients so that you have a relatively smooth mixture. 3. It’s important you use a meidum sized non-stick pan for these. Heat the pan over a medium heat, once hot, using a ladel, spoon over a generous amount of the mixture into the centre of the pan. 4. Cook one side of the pancake, it will begin to bubble and the edges with stiffen a little. aftr a minute or so, using a spatula flip the pancake over and cook the opposite side. Leave to cook for another minute or so, so that it goes golden 5. Remove from the heat onto a plate and repeat the process with the rest of the batter to create your pancake tower. 6. The toppings can be adapted to your own liking. Using the baine-marie method, melt some dark chocolate in a bowl over boiling water, drizzle this over your pancakes. If you don’t fancy chocolate then drizzle some syrup on top, this will add sweetness to your pancakes. Finish by sparingly topping with your favourite fruit.

Recipe featured on MamaLotties.com

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One of our readers has had a go at a past Gib Mag recipe for her friend Peggy. What a treat! Send in your snaps to editor@thegibraltarmagazine.com for a chance to be featured!