Recipe French Onion Soup

ariana

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French onion soup is delicious, but not widely known about or served. Here is my recipe!

Take a few (2-3) medium yellow onions. Slice them into very thin slices, then put them in a pot to boil with some chicken stock. You can substitute this with beef stock if you would like. They should boil until the onions are brown, and somewhat dissolve into the liquid. Add some thyme and bay leaves to taste. After the broth looks done, mix in a cup of red wine. You can add other herbs, or salt and pepper--it all depends on what you like.

Pour the entire mixture into a bowl, and top with bread. Cover the bread with cheese (I prefer brie). Insert the soup + bread covered bowl into an oven for about 10 minutes, until the cheese melts on top.

Afterwards, your soup should be done! Use a spoon to cut into the bread. The bread should be softened from the soup and cheese.
 
French onion soup is lovely so thanks for sharing this recipe! I do the bread/oven thing too - it comes out looking fantastic and tastes superb. It's really cheap to make too.
 
Thanks for the recipe. Looks easy enough. French onion soup is divine when done right :)
 
I love french onion soup as well, especially since it's really such a fundamental, basic recipe - and not some overwrought recipe that calls for everything but the kitchen sink. It's just a handful of ingredients and a little bit of time and technique.

One thing that struck me as a little odd with this recipe though, was regarding browning the onions. Wouldn't it make sense to caramelize the onions first in some butter, then add the wine and stock into the pot to deglaze the pan? The onions aren't going to brown and caramelize if they are added raw into the chicken stock - unless perhaps if you completely evaporated down all the chicken stock to the point where the pan was nearly dry - but that seems like it would be far too concentrated at that point, even after you've added the wine.

Also, you can easily make your own "crouton" to fit in your soup bowl of choice, by cutting some day old bread into rounds with a biscuit cutter or even some leftover soup can. Then just brush the bread rounds with oil and season with salt, pepper, and herbs, and bake in the oven to dry them out. Personally, I just buy the large "Texas Toast" croutons at the store and use those instead, along with a slice of provlone over the bowl, and a sprinkling of parmesan, before broiling it.
 
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I love french onion soup as well, especially since it's really such a fundamental, basic recipe - and not some overwrought recipe that calls for everything but the kitchen sink. It's just a handful of ingredients and a little bit of time and technique.

One thing that struck me as a little odd with this recipe though, was regarding browning the onions. Wouldn't it make sense to caramelize the onions first in some butter, then add the wine and stock into the pot to deglaze the pan? The onions aren't going to brown and caramelize if they are added raw into the chicken stock

I was just about to write and say the same thing, when I saw this. The classic recipe calls for slowly caramelising the onions in butter first. This can take up to 40 minuted to achieve. I also wouldn't use chicken stock as its too pale. The finished soup should be mahogany brown and traditionally uses rich beef stock and sometimes a dash of cognac and wine.
 
A creamed version of onion soup is also great I like white onion and cider ,but it's higher in fat than the traditional French onion
 
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