Date Published: August 16th, 2020 | Last Updated: August 16th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: soups
Serves: 4-6 | Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 1 hour

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I’ve loved French onion soup for as long as I can remember – what’s not to love about caramelized onions and ooey gooey cheese? This soup has been in my recipe box for at least the past decade. In fact, it’s the first soup I can remember ever attempting to make in my mom’s kitchen back in Canada with a couple of friends after school. The results were bang-on but we didn’t know how to work the broiler (and neither did my mom – who uses a broiler in Chinese cooking?) so we didn’t get the classic bubbly cheese on top but it was still sooooo good. It was a long shopping list for us back in the day since none of these ingredients are in my mom’s traditional Chinese cooking arsenal, but now looking back at this ingredient list in preparation for today’s post, I had pretty much everything already in my pantry and picked the herbs from the garden!

This soup is pretty easy to make, but you’ll need a little patience at the start to caramelize the onions. After that, it’s just adding the rest of the ingredients then simmer and done! You can choose to top the soup with a slice of toasted bread or make your own quick chunky croutons by toasting bread cubes in the oven with some olive oil. I prefer croutons because I find it easier to eat when you don’t have to cut through a thick slice of bread and I also don’t have to worry about whether my slice of bread will fit perfectly into the bowl (plus, munching on extra croutons while the soup simmers is always a bonus). The serving size says 4-6, but when I make this soup I always end up having 4 bowls, so realistically it serves me and maybe one other person. 😜

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 1/4 cup (55g) butter, unsalted
• 2 large red onions, sliced
• 2 large yellow/sweet onions, sliced
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 cups (1.5L) low sodium chicken broth – the combination of the chicken and beef broth with the salt needed to caramelize the onions and the rest of the ingredients tend to make this soup on the saltier side so I suggest using low sodium chicken broth in this soup and adding your own salt in at the end to your liking.
• 1 cup (250ml) beef broth
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 sprigs fresh parsley
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves (or a pinch of dried thyme)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• salt & pepper to taste
• 4-6 thick slices of French or Italian bread
• A few slices of cheese per bowl
  • A milder tasting cheese is recommended since the soup itself has a very robust flavour and can be salty – ie. Asiago, mozzarella, Gruyere or Swiss. You can do a mix of these cheeses!
  • Tip: If you don’t have any oven-safe bowls, you can use shredded cheese so it melts easier over the hot soup and bread.
• pinches of paprika for garnish

Directions:

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In a medium pot, on medium heat, melt the butter and cook the onion with the salt until they’re caramelized and syrupy – stir frequently and scrape the bottom of the pot so it doesn’t stick and burn. This is the most time-consuming process and takes about half an hour.

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Once onions are ready, add into the pot: chicken broth, beef broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Simmer on medium heat for 20mins without the lid, stirring occasionally.

While the soup simmers, prepare the bread: toast the bread slices until golden and crispy or alternatively you can make them into croutons by cutting them into cubes, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and toast them in the oven at 180˚C for 10 minutes until golden and crispy.

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When soup is ready, remove the herbs and add in the balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spoon the soup into oven-safe bowls and place the crispy toasted bread into each bowl then topped with slices of cheese. Put the soup bowls in the oven and broil on HIGH until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Sprinkle some paprika over each bowl and serve. Enjoy!

Summarized Recipe: