French Onion Soup

I haven’t attempted to make French Onion Soup in years. During my single days, I tried a few times, but I was much less skilled and could never caramelize onions without screwing up. Now that I have more ninja cooking skills, I wanted to try again. It cost about $7, including the 1/2 lb swiss cheese to go on top.

5 large yellow onions

2 cloves of garlic, minced

7 cups beef stock, 1 cup chicken stock (or you can use all beef)

3/4 cup white wine

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1 bay leaf

Start by carmelizing the onions. Sautee them in olive oil in the pot you want to make the soup in. I used a large enamelized cast iron dutch oven. Keep the heat on medium high for 1/2 hour or so (stir them a lot!), add maybe a teaspoon of sugar 10 minutes in to help caramelize them. After they’re nice and brown, throw in the minced garlic.

At this point, add in the wine to deglaze the pan. Then, add the stock, thyme, and bay leaf. Simmer everything for 45 minutes or so. I ground a little pepper in at the end for taste.

To make the topping, I put the oven on broil, ladled out a bowl of soup, and added a piece of scali bread. It’s Italian bread, we had a whole loaf lying around. You can buy French bread if you want. On top of that, I put two slices of swiss. I placed the bowl on top of a cookie sheet and broiled just long enough to brown the cheese a bit. Make sure your bowl can handle the heat! I kind of winged it with a cheap IKEA bowl.

So not bad, you can get 6 or so servings out of $7-8 in supplies. I’m not counting the price of things like thyme, bay leaves, or the minuscule amount of garlic.

Oh yeah, and find that bay leaf and remove it. I always forget this part until it’s looming on my spoon.