This weekend I made French onion soup for the first time ever. It was time-consuming, but I'm so glad I did!
I've been wanting to make onion soup for quite a long time; I love it. Obviously the best part is the cheesy crouton on top, but I definitely love the whole package. I can make a meal of it. Not only because I love it, but because it completely fills me up (I am weight loss surgery patient, after all!). But I don't order it very often. Mainly because I'm always completely torn about whether I want an actual meal, like a burger or something, or I want the delicious onion soup. On the one hand, ONION SOUP! On the other hand, a complete meal with leftovers to take home. The meal almost always wins. I think, too, that I just can't get away from who I am: someone who craves food variety, and has a real FOMO (fear of missing out). What if I get the soup and I really miss having the burger? What if I get the burger and it isn't good? What if they stop making burgers or onion soup? And now that my stomach is so small, I can't have a meal AND the soup. And I hate wasting food. And sometimes I don't like leftovers. *sigh* The struggle is real...
I found this recipe online and decided to give it a try: How to Make French Onion Soup. It didn't seem overly complicated, most of the cooking time is hands-off, it didn't have any non-typical onion soup ingredients, and I have pretty good luck with recipes from The Kitchn.
I had to buy a few ingredients to make this, but it wasn't anything I won't use again: crusty bread for the croutons (got some off the day-old bread clearance rack--it's gonna get toasted and dunked anyway!); gruyere cheese, which I got on sale in the deli; brandy; and wine (I got the little four-pack so I don't waste a bottle--I'm not a wine drinker).
I set about slicing all the onions (lots of crying was done...). They went in the pot with the melted butter and olive oil and cooked for about 15 minutes. The you add the sugar, salt and pepper and cook for about an hour.
This is what it cooks down to. For whatever reason, I can never seem to get my onions to the "dark walnut" stage of color when caramelizing. I don't know if it's the recipe, me, my stove, or what. They still tasted great, though. To this you add the flour, cook for a minute, and then add the broth and wine and simmer for at least an hour.
This is after adding the broth and wine and then simmering for a little more than an hour.
I finished it off with about 1/4 cup of brandy. Then I sliced up the bread and toasted it in the toaster oven. After popping it on top of the soup, and then topping with a couple slices of Gruyere cheese, I put the bowls on a cookie sheet and broiled until the cheese browned. This is the only thing I did differently from the recipe. The recipe says to bake the bowls of soup in the oven for a half hour and then broil to brown the cheese, but my bowls don't specifically say "oven safe" on the bottom and I didn't want to chance them breaking. Still came out just fine, though.
The results? Divine!! I typically judge French onion soup by two factors: the cheesiness and crunchiness of the crouton, and the saltiness of the soup itself. Obviously, I can control the crouton very easily, so no problem there. It was kind of crunchy-chewy, with lots of melted cheese. I was worried that the soup would be very salty, as onion soup usually is, but it wasn't salty at all. As a matter of fact, I think I could have easily doubled the salt without an issue. Since I followed the recipe and used what was called for, I just added more salt and pepper at the end.
I would totally make this again, but I think I would add at least another pound of onions. It just didn't have enough onions for me, as I typically prefer onion soup to be a bit on the chunky side. Although this was pretty time-consuming to make, it was mostly hands-off cooking time.
(And yes, one bowl completely filled me up.)
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