Two hearty soup recipes for cold autumn days: onion soup and chili con carne

The cooking section of the Latvian publication SestDiena has featured two soup recipes meant for cool autumn days: an onion soup with white wine and cheese, and a spicy soup in the style of chili con carne. Both can be made in a home kitchen and require no advanced skills.

Cosy onion soup

This soup takes 40 minutes, makes three portions and is rated as easy. It can be vegetarian if a suitable stock is used.

Ingredients: 500 g of onions, oil and about 30 g of butter, a couple of thyme sprigs, a tablespoon of flour, 200 ml of dry white wine, about 700 ml of hot stock, salt and pepper. For serving you need six baguette slices, grated cheese and fresh parsley.

The onions are cut into thin half-rings and fried in a mixture of oil and butter with thyme until they begin to caramelise. Flour is then added, followed by the wine, which is briefly boiled, then the stock, and the soup simmers on low heat for about 15 minutes. It is ladled into heatproof bowls, two bread slices are placed in each, cheese is sprinkled on top, and the bowls go into an oven heated to 220 degrees for 8–10 minutes, until the cheese turns golden brown.

Chili con carne soup

The second soup takes 30 minutes and makes three to four portions. Chili can be left out, while more garlic can be added for extra heat.

Ingredients: an onion, two garlic cloves, 300 g of minced beef, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and coriander, paprika powder, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, a red pepper, about 600 ml of hot stock, 125 g of canned beans and pickled jalapeño peppers.

The onion, garlic and meat are fried, then spices and tomato paste are added, followed by tomatoes, pepper and stock, and everything is cooked for about 15 minutes. Finally salt, sugar, pepper and beans are added. The soup is served with toasted tortilla strips, grated cheese and fresh coriander.