French Onion Soup, a restaurant staple and timeless classic. When it is done right all your problems melt away into its cheesy, sweet, hearty goodness. After tasting and trialling a lifetime’s worth of this soul satisfying soup, we’ve unlocked a secret, a secret we shall share with you, but only if… you promise to tell everyone you know! Because what could be better than tons of people making amazing french onion soup!?
We should have known all along, this being a french dish and everything…
The secret? Ahh but of course mes amis! It’s all the in the romance, the romancing of le oignon. Like we’ve explained before “Romancing the Onion” has many meanings, but today we celebrate its most literal, and we have ourselves: a french onion romance.
Like any worthwhile romance, this recipe involves:
Desire: when you can’t stop thinking about a nice hot ooey gooey bowl of French Onion.
Pursuit: When you start the labor of love that is the chopping.
Tears: When tears stream down your cheeks from all the raw emotions..that is when you know you need help.
Booze: You drown your tears in a nice helping of booze and the pain is easily forgotten… (This cheapy wine is one of my favorites to drink and splash in food)
Sizzle: Throw the butter on med-low and let it melt, nice and slow. Next, toss in your onions and get them all buttered up (splitting the butter and onions into two pans, or pots allows for even caramelization and faster cooking time).
Doting: You must dote upon thy beloved with proper finesse, and offer frequent spoon stirring hugs and kisses.
Once the onions reduce down by about half, you can combine them to one pot, but don’t leave behind all the magical tidbits stuck to the bottom of the other pan! Splash a little stock in that hot pan and deglaze so you can add it all to the other pot.
Desperation: You have been through a lot together so far and may be getting weary and desperate for a taste, but to do not throw in the towel just yet. This last bit is important for proper relationship development. Let the gentle browning continue.
The Wait: While you are waiting for your lovelies to come around, now would be a good time to prepare them something special to slip into. If you are hankering for some variety, a side dish. We suggest this Krispy Kale Beet Salad.
Dab, drizzle, or slather some olive oil on your sliced baguettes or bread bowls.
Gently toast them at 325 degree for about 15 min. You are looking for a bit of crunch at this point, and not too much browning.
Now back to le onions..They should be a rich, dark golden, almost chocolatey, brown.
Gifts: Turn up the heat (med-hot)! Shower your love in decadent gifts (add the wine and brandy and let that reduce baby).
Anticipation: Your mouth waters from the aroma and glorious sight of browning butter and glistening caramelized onions (notice the liquid is almost gone in picture below). Now that the onions have been properly romanced, the soup can be finished! Add the rest of the stock, bring to low simmer, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Prepare the oven to broil, ladle the soup into your vessel of choice, and top with cheese. 
Broil your beautiful creation until the cheese begins to bubble, brown, and drip down the sides with excitement.
Unifying : The soup, the crusty dunked bread, the melty browned cheese finally together! And oh yeah, that’s right, if you want to spice up the relationship, here’s it is in a bread bowl! A toasted sour dough, french onion soaked cheesy bread bowl!
Indulgence: At last, after all the romancing, this dazzling concoction is yours, all yours, unless you have made extra for someone else… and I mean a bunch extra. Oh geez I’m feeling faint from all these food feelings.
Oh sorry, blacked out there for a second..whew, thankfully we came out of that food coma to share the recipe!
- 8 medium onions peeled and sliced
- 1 cup or 2 sticks of butter
- 2 quarts good chicken stock (beef or veg work too)
- 1 cup of red wine
- ⅛ cup of brandy
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 2 tablespoon of sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- a crusty french baguette or a few toasted sourdough bread bowls
- 2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
- olive oil for bread toasting
- First, relax and clear your schedule for the next few hours. This recipe should not be rushed, and requires frequent affection through out the cooking process.
- Chop onions and pour a glass of wine for yourself (to help with relaxation and tears)
- Melt butter on low to medium-low in two separate heavy bottomed pots or pans and split onions between them
- Give the onions a good stir to coat with butter and let the magic begin
- Keep the temp low to medium low and let the onions gently and slowly caramelize. You do not want burnt onion flavor here (which is what happens when you rush it with high heat and cause a bad chemical reaction), so please be patient and stir frequently. This process should take about 1.5 hours.
- Pre heat the oven to 325 degrees.
- While the onions are cooking grate the cheese and set aside.
- Now, if you want to get fancy, you can also take this time to make a side dish. We suggest our Krispy Kale Beet Salad! But don't forget to pay attention to your onions!
- Slice baguette and drizzle pieces with olive oil and toast in oven on a baking sheet. If using bread bowls, cut the top off and pull out some of the center to create a bowl. Place bowls and lids on baking sheet and brush with olive oil and lightly toast in the oven. Cooking time will be approximately 15 minutes. You are not looking for a lot of color at this point, just crusting them up a bit to withstand the soup.
- When the onions have reduce by about half and the color is a rich golden you can combine the onions to one pan and deglaze the other with a splash of stock. Scrape off the crusty tidbits (you don't want to loose any of this flavor!) and add it to the other pan with the onions.
- When you have reached a rich dark golden brown color turn up the heat to medium-high and add the wine and brandy. Scrape pan down and simmer until the liquid has evaporated, and you can move the onions to one side again with spoon (they should be pretty dry)
- Add the flour and sugar and stir to evenly coat the onions. Cook for about 10 minutes to cook off the raw flour flavor.
- Now add the stock and bay leaves and let simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
- When you are ready to serve turn oven on broil. Place soup bowls on baking sheet (you may want to line it with foil for easy clean up) and fill with them with the hot soup. Cover with a couple slices of bread and a large helping of cheese to cover top. Leave the lids bottom side up on sheet if you are using a bread bowls and feel free to cover that with cheese too.
- Broil until cheese is browned and bubbly. Do NOT walk away from broiler!
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
