A Few Words About Onions (and Hungarian Cabbage Soup)

I have been preparing myself to write a topic about onions for a long. Perhaps this seems a weird obsession. Well, it is not weird at all. (What does „weird” mean, anyway?) The simple fact is that most Hungarian food recipes begin like this: fry some chopped onion in a pan or a saucer. So for me, and many other Hungarians, „onion” is an equivalent of cooking.

There is no Hungarian household without onions. They are in the pantry during the winter, waiting for their celebrated moment, when they can act their prime role in the process of cooking. They are with us. They also accompanied our Hun ancestors along the Asian steppe – nomads did not only eat meat... Wikipedia also opens a Historic perspective: .„Allium cepa is known only in cultivation, but related wild species occur in Central Asia”.

Onion is food, onion is a symbol, onion is medicine. „Wide-ranging claims have been made for the effectiveness of onions against conditions ranging from the common cold to heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other diseases. They contain chemical compounds believed to have anti-inflammatory, anticholesterol, anticancer, and antioxidant properties, such as quercetin. Preliminary studies have shown increased consumption of onions reduces the risk of head and neck cancers.”

Ugh. Enough of these medical disasters, let's go back to cooking.

Firstly, I put the pot of chopped onion on modest heat, and than look around in the cellar and the pantry, and find out, what to accompany to it. Pickled cabbage is a good choice, when it is winter, and it is around minus 10 outside. When the onion is „glassy” - Hungarian cook books regularly use this adjective - , you can add a teaspoon of paprika.

Now, paprika. Oh, no! Go away, temptation. I want to focus on onion, paprika: next time.

Don't ever burn paprika! It is not curry. Just let it fry for about one or two minutes on oil, because all ingredients and colour elements will absorb in oil. Then put the pickled cabbage slices in the pot, mix the whole thing with a tablespoon of wheat, and add enough water to get a thick soup. Typical seasoning? Marjoram, bay leaves and cumming seeds. You can add vinegar according to your taste.

This simple soup is often called the „soup of bohemians”. It is regarded as a good medical treatment against hangover – yeah, it is sour enough:-) One of my uncles always had it for the same purpose. He prepared all the ingredients with his pocket knife – you should do your cooking with your own pocket knife, if you want to be regarded as a real Hungarian – but while he was cooking, he soon arrived at a point where the pocket knife seemed to trick him. It simply disappeared while he was preparing the ingredients. He searched for it for quite a while, but then had a simple kitchen knife to go ahead and finish his preparations.

Luckily, he and his pocket knife soon met. It was in the soup.