French Onion Soup

Many of you know my best friend Alina from my weekly Sunday Instagram stories. We’re almost always in lougewear (read: paint stained sweatpants), covered in butter and flour, watching HGTV, and somehow on Pinterest looking at different laundry room tile options at the same time.

She’s my food soulmate and we usually get through our work weeks by deciding what we’re going to make that weekend; banana bread cheesecake, berry shortcakes, pancakes to feed 12, and lastly french onion soup help us forget about the hard parts of being in sales and consulting.

This french onion soup that we first trialed out many Sundays ago is something that dreams are made of. It’s amazing to me how just a few ingredients and a lot of stirring (and butter) can turn normal onions into a richly flavored broth topped with a toasty sourdough crouton and a blanket of melted gruyere cheese. It’s heavenly. The second it gets a little chilly or rainy, this is the first thing I crave.

As an expert testimonial, my boyfriend Rishil gets french onion soup at any restaurant where he sees it on the menu, and he said this one is the best he’s ever had! Granted, is he biased? Maybe. But I’ll take the compliment 🙂

If you want to see for yourself how good it is, let’s get started on how to make it:

The base of the soup is unsurprisingly made of onions, and a lot of them. We cook them down with butter, garlic, bay leaves, and fresh thyme until they’re beautifully golden and soft.

There’s no better smell than caramelized onions, garlic, and butter cooking together, so prepare for your kitchen to smell amazing. If Yankee Candle could make a scent like this I guarantee it would sell out so fast!

Once the onions are beautifully caramelized, add in the best part, the wine!

Cook the wine down until the onions have absorbed it all, and then sprinkle over flour. Add in beef broth, and simmer.

When you’re ready to serve the soup, ladle it into oven proof bowls, and top with a stale piece of bread. Sprinkle generously with cheese and broil until golden brown and bubbly.

Now, I’m off to work on  that banana bread cheesecake recipe..

French Onion Soup (serves 4-6) recipe slightly adapted from here

• 4 onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 cup of red wine, about half a bottle (I use $3 cabernet sauvignon from TJ’s, don’t judge)
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 2 quarts beef broth
• Salt and pepper
• Slightly stale bread (I use a baguette or sourdough)
• 1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, grated

1. Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes.
2. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
3. Sprinkle the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn’t burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.
4. Add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
5. When you’re ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Ladle the soup into oven proof bowls (if you don’t have any, see note below) and top with a piece of bread. Sprinkle very generously with cheese and broil until bubble and golden brown, 3-5 minutes.

Method if you don’t have oven proof bowls: Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top. Enjoy!