This will sound nuts (you're used to that from me by now), but even though Kent & I didn't used to like onions, we've always loved French Onion Soup. I pulled from a few different recipes to come up with my own version and it was sooooo flavorful…
Organic French Onion Soup
Ingredients
- 8 Tablespoons pastured butter (1/4 pound)
- 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 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme (I only had dried, but fresh would probably be better)
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 cup burgundy wine
- About 7 cups of bone 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 now know how quick and simple pressure cooker broth is so I can make some mineral-rich broth more quickly in a pinch. If you just don't think you will make it or want some on hand for when you're really crunched for time, try this bone broth — it's 100% grass-fed with a bunch of gelatin, organic ingredients, and it's shelf stable! I love keeping their beef and chicken broth on-hand for quick recipes because they make it just like I do here, and without the nasty msg-like ingredients, additives, or preservatives that store-bought has.)
- Croutons or toasted bread for each bowl
- Cheese for each bowl (Most restaurants use provolone, but all I had was an organic shredded Italian blend with mozzarella, provolone, romano & parmesan.)
Instructions
Melt the butter and add the onions, bay leaves and thyme and then simmer on medium-ish heat for 30 minutes to caramelize the onions (but making sure not to burn them) to draw all the flavors out. Now add the burgandy wine and cook another 15 minutes. After the alcohol has burned off and your wine/onion mixture has a nice, deep aroma, add your broth and boil for a few minutes to allow all the flavors to come together nicely.
Now it's time to assemble the bowls. Use a largle ladle or measuring cup and fill up each bowl. Place croutons or toasted bread on the soup. On top of the bread, add any type of cheese you'd like. I like mozzarella or swiss or provolone.
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.
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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.
More suggestions from a Chef at one of our favorite restaurants:
- 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 here.)
More ideas and other posts you might like:
- Omit the bread from this soup and you have a healthy, tasty no carb meal! Scroll down here for other no carb/low carb ideas
- I'm working on another post with more info and resources to help you find hope for healing Autism, but for now, check out the new link I added to a video at this post: Autism / ADHD / ADD / Behavioral problems – Ways to Help, Ways to Cure?
- Where to buy coconut oil
Meal Planning Help!
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I love this soup!! However, I now must live gluten and dairy free. I also cannot tolerate cashews. So I’ve been wondering how it would be without cheese? Any suggestions for an added flavor boost?
Ooh, good question. You could always substitute the bread with a gluten free garlic toast, but I don’t know of a really good non-dairy cheese substitute. French onion soup is SO flavorful anyway though, that I think it can stand on its own.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop Thx! That’s what I was thinking. I’m going to try it!
Have you ever made it without wine?
Did it taste alright?
(Alcohol is too flaring for many A.I.s)
I think it would be just fine without wine. You could also try substituting a little of something else with a little acidity and sweetness–kombucha or a very small splash of apple cider
or red wine vinegar and/or apple juice maybe?
Great ideas ! I always have trouble thinking up good substitutions, then end up disappointed, because some underlying Taste note is missing 😀
I am very allergic to alcohol. What can I substitute?
You can leave it out, Debbie, but I wonder if it was cooked well if all the alcohol would evaporate out? If you leave out the wine you’d need something to make up for that slightly fruity/tart flavor like a splash of red wine vinegar and a little juice (like pomegranate or grape) along with extra broth. I sometimes use kombucha to substitute for wine if I’m out of wine.
And oh! I wonder if the reason you don’t like onions is the spicey and tear producing sulfur compounds! The interesting thing about the onion is that the cell walls rupture under cooking and these compounds will escape into the air. When you add fat, it promotes the conversion of these starchy cell walls into sugar and they get sweeter, a la maillard reaction. So what was once a starchy and irritating food is now sweet and gooey. That’s how I like my onions. I think they are even better with bacon fat.
Some southern cooks lightly cook onions in water until soft but they are still spicey and stiff. I have never liked that method, but that’s me.
I popped over from your Lake Michigan post because French Onion Soup is a favorite around here. You know, I prefer the oven-baked method, It reduces five pounds of onions to delicious, coppery yumminess but does take me two hours. Seriously worth doing, and then freezing the base when vidalias are in season. Then I can whip out the frozen cooked onions and make soup in 45 minutes. I am now thinking this is what we should have for Sunday dinner! Thanks for the idea.
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
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!
Oh my gosh, I love parmesan and this sounds so good! Thanks for sharing how to do this w/o a microwave!
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.
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
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 …..
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
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
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!