French Onion Soup

Winter time and soup go hand in hand. I love a good bowl of soup when it is cold outside to warm me up! I was in the mood for a good French onion soup after watching an episode of The Chef Show where they made French onion soup. In the show, it looked super easy and only used a few ingredients, so I set out to make it.

I started by sauteing three pounds of onions in a dutch oven with oil over medium heat. After about 5 minutes, I saw them start to lose some color, so I added in a pinch or two of salt. I let them sautee for about a total of 30 minutes stirring occasionally until I started to see them brown. I added in a tablespoon of butter and let them sautee for 15 more minutes. Once, I was around the 45 minute mark, I added another tablespoon of butter and 4 cloves of garlic. I let that go for about a minute until the garlic was really fragrant. I used ½ cup chardonnay to deglaze the pan. It took about 5 minutes for it to cook off. Then, I added some salt and pepper, 8 cups of vegetable stock, one bay leaf, a sprig of dried thyme. I let the soup come to a simmer then I turned it down to low, put the lid on the pot, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I stirred a few times during that period and added 1 more tablespoon of butter.

Once the soup was done, I ladled it into oven safe bowls, I placed small rounds of a baguette on top, and I topped it with a mix of mozzarella cheese, fontina cheese, and jarlsberg cheese (a swiss cheese). I baked it for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit before turning on the broiler and broiling it for a couple minutes until the cheese was golden brown.

I decided to use a vegetable stock over a beef stock simply because I had vegetable bullion on hand and I did not have beef. I also wanted to try it with vegetable bullion to see if it would be possible to make a satisfying vegetarian version. I highly recommend making this soup because it is easy, a bit lengthy in the process, but it is worth it for the result.

Taste: 10/10

Level of difficulty: 1/5

Notes for next time: I loved this!