Soubise sauce is a secondary sauce based on Béchamel sauce. Make the basic Béchamel sauce, stir in chopped onion cooked in butter and you have soubise sauce. Some cooks prefer to sweat sliced onion in butter, puree the mixture in the blender then stir the puree into the Béchamel sauce. I prefer to chop the onion first before sweating it in butter. I don’t even limit the process to sweating either. I let the onion bits cook to a deep amber color before I blend in the Béchamel sauce. I find that the flavor of the soubise sauce is bolder that way. Plus, I like the browned onions bits peeping through the mass of creamy Béchamel sauce.
Soubise sauce goes very nicely with vegetables. Cook the vegetables any way you like (I prefer to brown them a bit in butter than allow them to cook in steam), with or without butter, season then pour the soubise sauce over.
Buttered vegetables with soubise sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups vegetables (I used carrot, squash, chayote and mushrooms), diced
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
For the soubise sauce:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup onion chopped
- 1 cup Béchamel sauce
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables. Depending on your choice of vegetables, cut them so that they will all cook at the same time. In my case, chayote and carrot need to cook longer than squash so I cut them a bit smaller.
- Melt the butter in a pan. Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat, stirring to coat each piece with butter, just until the edges are very lightly browned. Pour in 2 tbsps. of water, cover the pan tightly, set the heat to low and let the vegetables cook in the steam. Should take about 10 minutes by which time, the water should have evaporated.
- Meanwhile, in another pan, make the soubise sauce.
- Melt 2 tbsps. of butter. Add the chopped onion and stir. Cover and, over low heat and occasional stirring, allow to cook slowly until nicely browned.
- Pour in the Béchamel sauce, stir to blend and bring to a simmer.
- Place the vegetables in a shallow bowl or plate. Spoon the sauce around them. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, if you like.
Béchamel sauce