Inexpensive, both good tasting and healthy… this old-fashioned soup only wants us well. This is a popular recipe typical of Parisian gastronomy!
Inexpensive, but also nourishing and restorative, here is a popular dish par excellence: “It is a monument of Parisian cuisine, indicates François-Régis-Gaudry. Its name is also linked to a district of the capital!“. Indeed, this soup has long been served in the early morning in the Halles of Paris: it then constituted a complete and inexpensive meal for the workers who were starting their day and it also delighted the revelers who came to recover after their evening. This is the gratinée des Halles, the famous onion soup topped with country bread and gratinated cheese. Easy to prepare, it is also very economical, since the ingredients that make it up do not cost much. The food critic blows us away the traditional recipe from the Belly of Paris!
The ingredients of the gratinée des Halles
Here are the quantities needed to fill four bowls.
- 800 g of yellow onions or pink onions from Brittany
- 80g butter
- 1.5 l of beef broth (or poultry, vegetables, etc.)
- 10 cl of water
- 40 g of flour
- 4 slices of country bread
- 120 g of grated cheese (here half Emmental, half Comté)
- Salt, pepper
Preparing the gratinée des Halles
For this recipe, you will need bowls that are suitable for the oven (lion’s head type) or casserole dishes.
- Peel and finely slice the onions.
- Brown them in a pan with the butter. When they start to color, add 10 cl of water and stir well to deglaze the juices. Cover, then cook over low heat for 30 minutes. They should caramelize slowly.
- When they have melted, add the flour, stir well then add the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Fill the bowls with soup, leaving a large centimeter for the bread, arrange the slices on top to cover the entire surface and place in the oven for 3-4 minutes.
It’s ready, all you have to do is dip your spoon in it!
La gratinée des Halles remains a dish that brings people together, without fuss and without a skyrocketing budget. It calms, it warms, it consoles. We understand why it kept the workers of the Halles awake as well as the night owls in search of a last comfort. It’s up to you to revive this classic at home: simple, inexpensive, and as irresistible as ever.
