This is a quick, vegetarian recipe for Soubise Sauce. Based on Béchemel Sauce, the Soubise Sauce has an onion puree base and heavy cream.
“Personally, I don’t think pure vegetarianism is a healthy lifestyle. I’ve often wondered to myself: Does a vegetarian look forward to dinner, ever?” – Julia Child
Julia Child never understood Vegans or Vegetarians and she made no bones about it.
I would watch her show often on PBS and never thought a French food diet would be for me. She only cooked meat based dishes and made it a point to show her disdain for vegetarians and vegans.
Whenever I watched Julia Child on PBS, I often though I could cook like her. She was talented in many aspects of cooking, but, she had one monumental gift.
She made it seem like cooking French food was like talking a walk around the Seine!
Fun, glamorous and romantic!
My French cooking attempts, inevitably, ended in ruins.
Now, I feel like I have enough experience and confidence to attempt my hand at French food. To make my initial undertaking simple, I decided to start with something very simple.
So, I researched all kinds of French food sites and cooking blogs looking for that perfect dish to start on.
The hilarious thing is my inspiration for this recipe of soubise sauce came from the strangest place.
Some of my all time favorite shows have been Perry Mason, Columbo, Murder she wrote and Matlock!
(You are silently judging me, aren’t you?)
When these shows were on the air, I would never miss an episode (except Columbo). In their syndication days, I would watch the episodes over and over again. I think I must have watched every episode of Murder She Wrote at least five times.
Now that Colombo is on Netflix, I have been binge-watching it.
In “Murder Under Glass”, the Lieutenant is enamored by a cooking show personality. He couldn’t remember the name of the sauce and kept pestering this chef.
This sauce, as it turned out, was soubise sauce!
So, here is the sauce now making its debut on my blog.
The base of this sauce is actually Béchemel Sauce which is very simple too.
Penne pasta will work great with soubise sauce. Add a few veggies and you have a great pasta dinner. Personally, I like making a ratatouille stack and then drenching it with this sauce.
In the meantime, here is a list of the best Julia Child quotes by Huffingtonpost
What are your thoughts on French food?
How to make soubise sauce
Soubise Sauce
Ingredients
For the Béchemel Sauce
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
For the Soubise Sauce
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the milk (lukewarm) and set it aside.
- Peel the onion and cut it into long, thin strips
For the Béchemel Sauce
- Heat a medium sauce pan and add the butter
- Introduce the flour to the butter, one spoon at a time.
- Add next spoon after the previous one has blended
- When all the flour is blended with the butter (roux), set it aside to cool a little.
- Add the warm milk to the flour slowly. Its normal for the milk to get sucked up
- Once all the milk has been added, the Béchemel sauce is ready. If it coats the back of a spoon, its ready
For the Soubise Sauce
- In a medium sauce pan, add the butter and heat it at medium heat
- Add the onions and stir constantly
- Wait until the onions are translucent and then remove from heat
- In a food processor, add the onions and blend them until pureed.
- Add the pureed onions to the Béchemel Sauce, stirring constantly
- Once the onions and Béchemel Sauce have blended, add the heavy cream slowly
- Stir for a few minutes at low heat
- Remove from heat and serve the soubise sauce immediately
Can this be frozen or refrigerated?
Thank you, Alyssa. This Sauce can be refrigerated for up to one week. However, I wouldn’t reccommend freezing it because it doesn’t taste well when thawed. It tends to get more liquid after thawing and that ruins the taste.
I love this sauce, it’s seems so versatile and would be great for so many recipes. I’m a Miss Marple fan too 🙂
Thank you, Janette
Any time I see persistence like this I want to slap them a big high five. The sauce looks absolutely wonderful.
Thank you so much, Sarah! I like your compliment.
This looks so good!
Thank you so much!! I appreciate it very much.