Make Decadent & Delicious French Onion Soup

A richly flavored french onion soup from scratch. It doesn't get any better than this! The caramelized onions give it a subtley sweet flavor. This is not the oversalted stock found in most casual restaurants. The picture is of the soup before I popped it in the oven and melted the cheese. Next time I'll use a heavier hand with the cheese, too.

Step 1 Ingredients

3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2.5 pounds thinly sliced yellow onions
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons flour
8 (2 quarts) cups light beef stock, hot
1 cup dry red wine (I used a cabernet sauvignon)
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon sage
Salt and pepper to taste
thickly cut slices of French bread or baguette, toasted well
1.5 cups or more, grated Gruyere (can use fontina, swiss, provolone or another good melting cheese)

Comments

[kikiclint]

dem french onions were on to something with this one.

[crazyrog17]

 where does the flour come into play? 

[Doggie Stylish]

i made your soup last nite & all i have to say is NOM NOM!!

[jakee117]

omg i made this by myself, I'm 14 it took me 3 hrs, so we had it after dinner it was AMAZING!!! you must post more recepies. EVERYONE: make this!

[I Am An Evil Taco]

great recipe. authentic. bread bowl? melted cheese on a bread bowl packed with this stuff would be weapons-grade tasty.

[KayaATX]

It would have to be a very dense bread or else the bottom would get really soggy. Perhaps a dense bread, such as pumpernickel, but toast cheese first to form a "broth resistant layer"??

[I Am An Evil Taco]

slightly pre-baked maybe? It wold probably have to be a dense bowl, or a slightly more reduced version of this. would be an interesting experiment at the least.

[GorillazMiko]

Yummy! Looks incredibly delicious, I want to eat this right now... :P +5/5 stars.

[Patrik]

Anyone have any suggestions for making a *vegetarian* onion soup?

[I Am An Evil Taco]

mushroom broth. boil some mushrooms, white onions, celery, garlic. create yourself a nice thick base from it. Hell, grind up some portabellas and throw them in the water as well. strain it after it's a nice caramel color and use that instead of the beef broth. taste will be similar, yummy.

[nature223]

substitute vegetable broth for meat based.. wont taste nearly as good though

[KayaATX]

My vegetarian friend subs vegetable broth. She does not use any soy, as dbarak suggested. Instead, when the onions are caramelized but before adding wine, she "browns" 2 Tb of flour in the onions, cooking about two minutes. Then she adds wine and reduces. The sorta "roux" gives it a fuller flavor just like beef stock or broth would.

[dbarak]

I was wondering that myself and then I realized I have a carton of vegetable stock in the kitchen. That might work, maybe with little soy sauce tossed in for a bit of saltiness. I'll have to try that.

[KayaATX]

Let me know if the soy works. I prefer a less briny french onion soup but my boyfriend likes the saltier version. If it turns out nicely, next time I make it for him I'll use your version.

[thewoodcarver]

I will look at some of my old recipes I seem to remember my grandma making hers with tomato's instead of chicken or beef stock ......it was onion soup but she had another name for it .............Looks good Kaya

[KayaATX]

Thanks, thewoodcarver. I bet it adds a nice twist to the soup. And thank you, starshipminivan...it was yummy and was even better the next day. In fact, I'd say it was much better.

[freakinslop]

some thyme would work well too when cooking the onions =)

[KayaATX]

I've read recipes that called for using a bit of roughly chopped thyme. I adapted one of Julia Child's recipes and she doesn't use it but I think it would be lovely. Another friend who tasted my soup thought a tiny bit of fresh rosemary would've been fantastic.

[starshipminivan]

Looks yummy!