Skip to main content

French Onion Soup

Welcome back! 
Today, we have a popular soup that actually dates from ancient times, though it gained its popularity since the 1960s. Surprisingly, this increase in demand was seen first in the United States rather than France, where people were eating fun French food like escargot. Although the dish seems simple (a big pot full of onions, right?), it's actually quite time consuming to make and involves many steps that we'll go over. But in the end, you get a nice authentic soup to enjoy!

French Onion Soup


Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

  • 3 large sweet onions, thinly sliced (this should be about 8 to 10 cups)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 4 to 6 cups beef broth (depending on how concentrated you want it to be, we used 4 cups)
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme (dry or fresh)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Serve this alongside some baguette slices topped with cheese (we used Gruyere).

Directions:

  1. In a Dutch oven, put the oil and onions in and cook until soft. (About 15 minutes)
  2. Add the butter and cook until the mixture is light brown. (About another 15 minutes)
  3. Add the sugar to help it caramelize and cook until dark brown. (About 10 minutes)
  4. Add the garlic in and cook for about 5 minutes.
  5. Add the white wine and cook for another 5 minutes. At this point, there should be about 2 cups of soup in the pot.
  6. Add the beef broth and thyme and cook for about 10 minutes. The onions have been cooking for an hour now, and the everything should be at the right consistency.
  7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  8. While cooking the soup, cut up a baguette into slices that will fit in your bowl. Top them with cheese.
  9. Split the soup into cups. Put a baguette slice in each and then broil it in the oven until the cheese is melted.
  10. Voila! It's now ready to eat!
This process is pretty long, but it's worth it. You could also serve the bread on the side if you rather it be dry and crunchy but it's traditionally supposed to be in the soup.
It pairs nicely with lots of other dishes, like a light salad for a soup and salad combo. We had it alongside a tuna sandwich, which was also great.
Also, one serving of this soup is pretty much half of a large onion. That's a lot of onion!

-Chefpo
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fig Crème Fraîche Cake

Welcome back!  Today, we have a cake featuring an interesting fruit: the fig! Figs are typically eaten dried or in some processed form because they don't stay fresh for long, so making this dish out of fresh figs was quite nice. Once completed, the fig flavor blends in very well with the rest of the cake and creates a dessert that is flavorful but not overly rich. Fig Crème Fraîche Cake Makes a 9" cake Ingredients: 1/2 pound figs, quartered (if you have big figs, maybe 6-8 slices) 120 grams cake flour 50 grams almond flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 50 grams sugar 60 grams honey 120 grams crème fraîche 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier 1/2 cup melted butter Directions: In a bowl, sift in the dry ingredients (cake flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt). Mix this together. In another bowl, put in the sugar, honey, and crème fraîche, and mix them together.  One add a time, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add in the vanilla ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brownie Cheesecake

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo!  Today, we have a delicious treat that combines two wonderful desserts into one! If you like brownies and cheesecake, you're going to like this too, as the two flavors really balance and complement each other. It also goes well with some fresh fruit and is a good final course of a meal. (In fact, you got a sneak peek at it in our Pasta Salad recipe!) Brownie Cheesecake Makes a 9" round pan Ingredients: Brownie: 6 ounces dark chocolate 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 tablespoons brown sugar 6 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 75 grams cake flour 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Chocolate chips (optional) Cheesecake: 8 ounces ricotta cheese 8 ounces cream cheese 4 ounces plain greek yogurt 2 eggs 50 grams sugar 1/4 cups dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries) soaked in rum/brandy/Grand Marnier Lemon zest (optional) In place of the ricotta cheese, you could use another 8 ounces of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pearl Meatballs

Welcome back!  Today, we have a unique recipe that comes from Central China: Pearl Meatballs! The name is quite interesting but makes sense: they're meatballs, but the translucence of the sticky rice that coats the meatball mirrors the luster of a pearl. It's often served on special occasions, like Lunar New Year, where everyone gathers for a feast and can enjoy this delicious dish. Plus, it's not even that difficult to make! Pearl Meatballs Makes about 30 meatballs Ingredients: For the meatballs: 1/2 pound ground pork 1/4 pound shrimp 80 grams (about 1/2 can) water chestnuts, finely chopped 2 tablespoons green onion, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon rice wine 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 egg white For the rice: 1 cup glutinous (sticky) rice Directions: Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in water for 2 hours. In a bowl, place all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix until even. The mixture...
Post a Comment
Read more