French Onion Soup
- Unexpected Foodie
- Apr 21, 2017
- 3 min read
14/115!
This is what we made for Valentine's Day a couple month's ago... clearly I am behind on the blogging!
But the good news is.... I AM OFFICIALLY DONE UNIVERSITY!!! Which means, plenty of free time for cooking AND blogging!
French onion soup has to be one of my favourite soups of all time... I LOVE onions. Just love 'em. For this recipe, the flavour was on point but the execution and presentation of the dish fell flat. We didn't have the right bowls to use, and had to settle with old Pizza Hut mini pizza tins that we have (for some strange reason). And I think it would have been nicer if we had larger slices of bread on top.
We also needed more cheese. My husband thought I was crazy when I suggested it (since I ALWAYS suggest more cheese, on everything) but this time, it was really needed!
Just a heads up.. this soup needs some time to cook. Plan for an hour an a half cooking time!
Overall, it was a lovely, low-key dinner followed by our Valentine's Day tradition... fondue!
** serves 6
*original recipe from Sarah Copeland's The Newlywed Cookbook
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 large yellow or Vidalia onions (about 2 lbs), thinly sliced (we used sweet onions, but I would like to try with red onions next time)
- A few sprigs of thyme
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- 1 bay leaf
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
- 8 cups chicken broth or stock (we used boxed organic, but I would like to try and make my own next time)
- 6 slices of country bread or baguette
- 1/3 cup red wine
- Pinch of sugar
- 12 oz/ 340g grated Gruyere cheese
Directions
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium heat
- Add the onions and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are deep brown and caramelized - about 40 minutes
- Add the garlic and bay leaf and continue to cook another 8 minutes, seasoning with the salt (up to 1 tbsp) and pepper as you go
- Increase the heat to medium-high and add the white wine
- Bring the wine to a boil and cook until about half evaporates, about 3 minutes
- Add the broth and decrease the heat to medium
- Simmer the soup until it is fragrant and just a touch thickened, about 40 minutes
- During the last 10 minutes of cooking the soup, preheat the broiler to medium-low and toast the bread slices (we don't have a fancy oven with a broiler range, so don't worry if you don't either. Just put it on normal broil)
- Pull the thyme and bay leaf out of the pot and stir in the red wine and a pinch of sugar
- Arrange six ovenproof bowls (or two, and keep the rest for leftovers!) on a rimmed baking sheet and divide the soup among the bowls
- Top each bowl of soup with a slice of toasted bread and sprinkle the Gruyere over the top
- Place the baking sheet with the bowls on the top oven rack
- Broil until the cheese is melted and starting to turn golden brown, about 3 minutes (Don't broil them too long or the fat will separate out the cheese and become oily - which happened to us!)
- Carefully transfer the bowls onto plates and serve bubbling hot
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