French Onion Soup is packed full of flavor with caramelized onions, a delicious broth, and topped with crusty bread covered in creamy, melted cheese. Comfort food at its best!!
My husband and I have been married 15 years this week! For at least 12 of those years, he’s been trying to start a “soup club”. Every year when the weather gets cold, his idea comes back out of summer hiding and he starts plotting how it will work. It’s a really great idea – invite people to be a part of this soup club and each week one person will make enough soup for everyone in the club, bring it to them, and give them their recipe. By the end of “soup season”, everyone will have a new batch of soup recipes for the next year. The only problem with the club is it really hasn’t gotten off the ground yet….in 12 years. Maybe this will be the year!! And if it is….THIS French Onion Soup will be my first contribution!
Here’s how to make French Onion Soup:
- Bring a large soup pot to low/medium heat. Add butter to pot and then the slices of onion. Let them cook for about an hour, making sure not to burn them, until very soft and caramelized.
- Once the onions reach a nice brown color and are very caramelized, add 1/4 cup of red wine. Allow it to burn off for a few minutes. Then add the beef broth and bay leaves and simmer for 45 minutes or so.
- Right before you’re ready to serve, turn the oven to broil. Fill individual ramekins with soup and top with a nice piece of crusty, french bread and a few good slices of Gruyere cheese.
- Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and put under the broiler. Watch carefully!! Remove when the cheese has melted completely. Serve immediately.
French Onion Soup
Ingredients
- 4 large yellow onions
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 cups beef broth
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 2 tbsp butter
- Gruyere cheese
- toasted French bread
Instructions
- Add 2 tbsp of butter to a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.
- Cut the onions in half from root to tip. Trim off the each end of the onion and lay it flat on a cutting board. Starting on one side of the onion half, slice into small strips.
- Add the onions to the pot and stir around so they are all coated in butter. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Let them cook slowly for about an hour, stirring every so often and making sure the heat isn't too high. You want the onions to slowly soften and turn a nice light brown color without burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Once the onions have softened and cooked for about an hour, add 1/4 cup of red wine to the pan. Turn the heat up slightly so the wine begins to slowly burn off.
- When most of the wine has burned off, add the beef broth and bay leaves and simmer for about 30-45 minutes or until you are ready to serve.
- While the soup is cooking, slice the French bread and lightly toast. Slice the Gruyere cheese into thin slices.
- When ready to serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls (I love using ramekins for this because they are ovenproof).
- Add a slice of bread to the top of the soup and 2 or 3 slices of cheese on top of the bread. Put all of the bowls on a cookie sheet and put in the oven on broil. Keep an eye on the cheese so it doesn't burn. Once the cheese is nice and melted, your soup is ready to eat!
