I LOVE french onion soup. It's always a go to for me when I see it on a menu, but to be honest i'm a bit judgy about my FOS and I know what I like and what I don't. I can tell when the onions haven't been caramelized enough and short cuts were taken. The trick to really rich and beautiful French Onion soup is taking the time to caramelize those onions! I also love adding sherry and fresh herbs (thyme and rosemary) to my FOS. If you don't like the taste of the herbs or don't want to add alcohol to the soup (for W30 for instance) feel free to leave it out.
Here's what you need:
Produce
2 large onions (white or yellow)
1T fresh thyme
½ T fresh rosemary
Sliced Mushrooms (optional)
Pantry
3T Ghee, butter, or oil
1/2 C Sherry wine
4 C bone broth or broth (You can adjust this amount if you want soup thinner or thicker)
2T Worcester Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste
Gruyere Cheese (optional)
Dried bread, croutons, crostini
Instructions
-Peel and cut onions in half and thinly slice so you have half moons
-Melt ghee butter or oil in large pot on low heat (Cast iron soup pots are great for this)
-Add onions and let them start to sweat and reduce down. I keep my heat at around 2 and stir regularly.
This is where all of the flavor is built. You want to watch and make sure that the onions don’t burn but instead start to carmelize. Add more oil or butter/ghee if the onions start to dry out. Mushrooms will add another layer of richness to the soup if you want to add them. Throw them in when onions are about half done.
This process can take an hour or two until you get them to a light to medium brown color like this:
-Add in the fresh herbs, salt & pepper
-Add in the sherry and worcester and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom into the mixture
-slowly start adding in the broth. I like to add a bit, let the mixture come back to a simmer then add in more.
-repeat adding in the broth until all of the broth has been added
-Let simmer for 10 minutes or so so the flavors can all meld together
-Taste and add in salt if needed. You can also add in bouillon if you need it to be saltier.
To finish
Pour into soup bowls, and top with crostini, crispy bread or croutons, top with grated gruyere cheese and broil on high in your oven for 3-5 minutes until the cheese is melted. Using crispy bread will keep the cheese and bread on top of the soup so you can get that great melty crust. I used a gluten free bread and it still worked great!
Enjoy!
If you try this recipe, please let us know what you think!