French Onion Soup

Concept to make this is to cook down sliced onions until brown and almost syrupy, add in flavorful reducing liquid such as wine and Worcestershire, and then cook into beef stock until the flavors mellow.

The best broth is always going to be the one you make yourself, but if you don’t want to spend a day making it, these will do in a pinch. Below the ingredients, I have photos of the types of pre-made stocks I prefer to keep around.

I’ve also used the powdered form from Lono Life, while it isn’t as dark, it does have a nice flavor to it. When looking through your local grocer, look at the ingredients on these versus your typical Campbell’s or bouillon cubes. You’ll see ingredients like “beef stock” versus “beef flavor” and a large difference in sodium and protein content. A good broth might even have potassium in it as well as other minerals, it’ll be a whole meal in one liquid. Kettle&Fire will set you back the most with the cost, but the other two are fairly reasonable. Sam’s Choice is owned by Walmart, which I typically find at their “Neighborhood Market” style locations, and the Kitchen Basics I can get at Kroger supermarkets. It’s not as good as the other two listed, but Kitchen Basics I’ve found to be the best at my supermarket. If you have other brands at your store, I suggest going through them to see their nutritional labels to figure out which one will suit best.

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Slice at least two onions up and add them to a pan under low-to-medium heat. Use plenty of butter, oil, and salt to help reduce the onions until they are brown, sweet, and almost syrupy. This might take a while, be patient!
I’m going to link another blog post for Caramelizing Onions here, in case you’re interested on more instructions.

Once you’ve caramelized your onions, add them to a deep pot and add in the wine, Worcestershire sauce, and balsamic vinegar and crank it up to a high simmer. Reduce until you can scrape a spatula at the bottom of the pan and the liquid does not immediately refill. Pour in the beef stock. Some people would be done at this step, but I like to let it simmer for about a half hour on low at this point, to allow the flavor of the beef broth get into the onions. This is where I add about a spoonful of dried thyme and a couple of bay leaves to help give the dish a little more depth this way those herbs can work themselves into the broth while it’s simmering.

After you’re done, separate it into individual serving dishes, and top with the bread of your choice (or if you’re some varying form of gluten-free or with celiacs like me, I use Milton’s brand crisps) and then the shredded cheese and broil until cheese is bubbly and browning. And ta daa! You can impress your guests and just about all you really did was cook onions! But the broth will be so good, they’ll never know the difference 😉

Featured image: Courtesy (c) Great British Chefs.
I’ll update the featured image with the next time I make a batch