This will sound nuts (you’re used to that from me by now), but even though Kent & I don’t like onions, we love French Onion Soup.
I pulled from a few different recipes to come up with my own version and it was sooooo flavorful…
SEE UPDATE BELOW WITH TIPS FROM CHEF GLENN AT REDS ON THE RIVER!
Organic French Onion Soup
(Use as many organic ingredients as you can find.)
- 8 T. butter (1/4 #)
- 2 1/2 medium onions, sliced (I used a mixture of red & white since that’s just what I ended up with at the farm market yesterday) – if you love onions, you’ll probably want to use more
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 t. thyme (I only had dried, but fresh would probably be better)
- 2 t. sea salt
Melt the butter, add the other ingredients, and then simmer on medium-ish heat for 30 minutes to caramelize the onions and draw all the flavors out. Now add:
- 1 1/2 c. burgundy wine
Cook another 15 minutes. Next add:
- About 7 cups of stock/broth – I used a mixture of chicken and beef stock – a couple of the recipes I found called for that. Sounds weird but it was good.
I boiled this for a few more minutes, then used a glass measuring cup with a handle to scoop out soup into oven-safe bowls.
- Place croutons or toasted bread on the soup. (I used organic whole wheat sourdough bread from Meijer, sliced thick – it was a bread made not far from here.)
- On top of the bread, add any type of cheese you’d like. Most restaurants use provolone, but all I had was an organic shredded Italian blend with mozzarella, provolone, romano & parmesan.
Place a cookie sheet on your oven rack and then set the bowls on top. Bake about 10 minutes at 450* to melt the cheese.
Makes about 8 servings, much more if you’re feeding kids, since they won’t eat as much.
Note: After I already had this one started, I found another French Onion Soup Recipe that called for cooking the onions in the oven to save you having to stand there stirring them – so I’m going to try that next time, only I’ll use the ingredients from my recipe above, since it came out so well and I loved the flavor.
Not fast, but simple for sure
This was filling enough for a main dish and tasted as good as what we’ve had in restaurants, all on my first try! We had it with a few different farm market fruits and veggies. This worked out great for a meatless meal, since most of the day Kent & I kept saying to each other, “So what should we pull out of the freezer for dinner?”, and we weren’t getting anywhere. This soup was easy, not all that fast, but pretty simple to pull off.
UPDATE WITH SUGGESTIONS FROM CHEF GLENN:
- Use vidalia onions, cook them in a hot pan and just sear them quick to get some color on the outside, this gives a lot of flavor.
- Then go to low heat and cook to get the water and sugar out of the onion – cook ’til onions are transluscent.
- Add veal stock and a touch of sherry vinegar. (My farmer didn’t have veal bones, so I got them at USWM.)
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS RECIPE IF YOU TRY IT!
For more un-processed food recipes check out Kitchen Stewardship today and her Fall Festival of Super Foods – Un-Processed Edition.
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Julie L. 08.25.08 at 9:39 am
Organic whole wheat sourdough bread from Meijer?! Do tell where you found this item! I knew they had sourdough bread, but figured it was nutritionally inferior to real sourdough bread. And the kind I saw was made with the usual “bleached, enriched…”
Enlighten me!
Thanks!
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Michigan Mom2three 08.25.08 at 9:51 am
This looks like a good, authentic recipe Kelly. As a student, I lived abroad in France, went to school etc, and I came to ADORE French Onion Soup! Every cafe has their own “version” and a cafe is often judged by their “Soup A L’oignon” as much as anything else….
I use only beef stock, homemade, in mine. Also, les francais would use emmental or gruyere cheese (closest thing would be swiss here, although I find both emmental and gruyere at Sam’s Club of all places!)
My children devour this….. and I often make it along with a nice quiche for dinner in the winter.
Shauna
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Kelly the Kitchen Kop 08.25.08 at 11:55 am
Julie,
Sorry, the package is long gone below a pile of icky trash, but I know it was made of paper, and found in the bakery section. It was made up north in Leelanaw.
Shauna,
I like your idea of serving it with a quiche. I had also used homemade stock from the freezer. I love having that on hand!
Kelly
[Reply]
Anna 08.26.08 at 10:31 am
It’s been a while since I made FOS, but I think I made it a number of times with the NT recipe when I had a lot of homemade beef broth to use up. Super yum!
I use cave-aged Gruyere cheese, but instead of a crouton, I use a big slice of roasted cauliflower covered with shredded cheese. Sounds odd, I know, but mostly the crouton serves to hold the cheese, and the roasted cauliflower can do that, too.
I know someone else who makes microwaved 100% shredded hard cheese (usually parmesan) flat crisps and uses those instead of a crouton. I know we are trying to reduce our use of the microwave, but …..
[Reply]
Kelly the Kitchen Kop 08.27.08 at 7:21 pm
Hi Anna,
I didn’t even know there was a recipe for French Onion Soup in NT, I’ll have to check that out and compare…
I don’t know what you mean by those cheese “flat crisps”, but I’d like to know more – I’m sure I could figure out how to do it without the microwave, though!
Kelly
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Laura 01.23.09 at 1:16 pm
I just saw someone on the the food network make Parmesan cheese crisps. She made a pile of grated Parmesan cheese (the good stuff, not from the can) on a lined cookie sheet and then put it in the oven. It turned into a sort of cracker looking thing that would probably be great in soup. She molded it in a muffin tin and put a small salad in it. It turns crispy when it is cooled. I don’t remember the oven temp.
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Kelly 01.23.09 at 5:01 pm
Oh my gosh, I love parmesan and this sounds so good! Thanks for sharing how to do this w/o a microwave!
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Amy 05.27.09 at 5:55 am
Very similiar to my recipe, but we always use swiss cheese on top….nice flavor! Also, try champagne rather than the red wine, tastes yummy!
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Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship 10.27.09 at 12:53 am
Thank you so much for joining the October Fest Carnival of Super Foods! This week is the last week, and the theme is Healthy Fats (a subject near and dear to both our hearts).
I made this recipe last winter and am absolutely ready to have it again! Sooooo good!
Katie
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