Monday Recipe
Easy French Onion Soup
Classic French onion soup can be a major undertaking, an all-day affair spent reducing an entire pot of sliced onions to next to nothing. I happen to have a life, and would rather make a simple and easy rendition, as I expect most here will as well.
You’ll need:
½ cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups sliced onions
4 (10.5 ounce) cans low sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices French bread
4 slices provolone cheese
2 slices Swiss cheese, diced
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
You’ll do:
1) Melt butter with olive oil in an 8 quart stock pot on medium heat. Add onions and continually stir until tender and translucent. Do not brown the onions.
2) Add beef broth, sherry and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 30 minutes.
3) Heat the oven broiler.
4) Ladle soup into oven safe serving bowls and place one slice of bread on top of each (bread may be broken into pieces if you prefer). Layer each slice of bread with a slice of provolone, 1/2 slice diced Swiss and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Place bowls on cookie sheet and broil in the preheated oven until cheese bubbles and browns slightly.
Done! Great appetizer/soup course, or scale as needed for a hearty dinner with a salad and red vino.
Hat tip to All Recipes
Category: Cooking
“Do not brown the onions.” Yeah, it’s hard to resist doing that…’specially when they are surrounding an inch & 1/2 thick slab of beef beast that’s being grilled in that pan. Oh…my bad…this is calling for beef BROTH…Never mind.
Looking right tasty, I like crusty bread with baked cheese. I even like onions, they don’t like me anymore. Sometimes the Prilosec helps, sometimes it don’t. Wonder if Chipmonks would like this?
Now you’ve done it! My favorite soup just waltzed in the door and plopped itself in front of me on this page.
Please, sir, can I have some more, sir?
Me three. Dinner is decided. Heading out on errands, picking up the cheeses. Salivating already.
And for those who like to cook under pressure…. Pressure Cooker French Onion Soup Ingredients: 3 tablespoons (1/3 stick) of salted butter 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil 2 teaspoons of light brown sugar 4 big onions (I used 1 of each: Vidalia/Sweet, Red, Yellow and Spanish) 4 cups of beef broth (I used 4 cups of water mixed with 4 teaspoons of Beef Better Than Bouillon) 1 cup of red cooking wine (or any dry red wine you have lying around) 1 teaspoon dry thyme 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce (not shown in the video but I do add this) 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder 1 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon of pepper Croutons (you can buy a small bag of your flavor choice in any market or make your own) Provolone and Swiss/Gruyere Slices Shaved Asiago (optional) Paprika, for presentation Cut the onions so they are halved and then slice into strips (don’t dice!) and set aside in a bowl Put the Instant Pot on Sauté and melt the butter and oil until it sizzles Add the onions and brown sugar and stir regularly for about 10-15 minutes or until the onions have cooked down by about half and have become translucent and have a pasta-like consistency. Make sure they aren’t too firm or too mushy! Add the broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, bay leaf, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Give it a stir and secure the lid. Hit “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” for 8 minutes. Quick release when done. Preheat your oven to broil while quick releasing. Taste the soup (but be careful – It’ll be hot!) and feel free to add additional salt and pepper as you see fit. But I think it’s perfect as is! Ladle the soup into the crocks until it’s just below the brim. Layer the croutons on top of the soup so that it serves as a foundation for the cheese. Seal with 1-2 slices of Provolone (depending on how wide your crock is. Mine needs 2 to cover it properly but many will only need 1). And… Read more »
” an all-day affair spent reducing an entire pot of sliced onions to next to nothing.”
True. I have made it a number of times back when I enjoyed cooking, and it was always frustrating to see a bag of onions (I cook large quantities; 4 cups is an appetizer) cook down to almost nothing. Even made my own stock.
So much time to make, so little time to eat. God’s way of pointing out the futility and transitory nature of worldly things.