Shreya There are so many recipes for a French onion soup out there and I won’t say mine is the best but it is what works for me. The onions are caramelized for an hour to bring out their sweetness and texture and then cooked in a flavored broth. Finally, topped with bread and Gruyère cheese, it is broiled to perfection! I added a few whole spices to flavor the broth along with thyme and seasoning. Now I, used chicken stock for this recipe but the beauty of this soup if that you can you can use any stock of your choice. If you want to keep it vegetarian, go for a vegetable broth. For a meatier profile, you can go for a beef broth.
I still remember my very first bowl of French onion soup I had years ago at a diner. It was so salty that I couldn’t eat more than 5 spoonfuls. That’s when I thought to myself that there has to be a better version! So I tried the soup in several other restaurants thereon and very rarely did I find it to my liking. A common problem was the extra saltiness which made it impossible to enjoy. I see now how it’s easy to over salt the soup because the broth one typically uses is already to salty. So my trick to reduce the salt is add an extra cup of water and 1 whole potato cut in cubes. The potato will absorb the salt from the soup leaving it less salty and more palatable. I have to give credit to my mom for teaching me this trick years ago. Thanks mum!
Without further ado, let’s jump to the recipe then!
| Yield | 4 servings | |
| Prep time | 0 h | 10 mins |
| Cook time | 1 h | 20 mins |
| Total time | 1 h | 30 mins |
Ingredients needed for a French onion soup
Directions
How to caramelize onions
I wish I could tell you there’s a shortcut to caramelize onions but I haven’t been able to find any. It takes at least an hour to get those sugar out of the onion and caramelize them do that you get a rich soup. You also need to keep stirring at frequent intervals to prevent the onions from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. That will give a permanent burnt taste to the taste which is hard to get rid of.
Heat up your dutch oven with the butter and olive oil.
Add the onion slices and coat them well in the fat.
Cover and cook for an hour mixing ever few minutes. If they start sticking to the bottom, add 2-3 tbsp of water.
Halfway through the caramelization process, add the whole spices and the ginger garlic paste.
How to prepare the broth
As I mentioned before, you can use your stock of choice for this soup. I used chicken stock powder but elevated it a bit my flavoring the stock with thyme. Basically, I heated up 4 cups of water with 3 tbsp stock powder and brought it to a boil with the thyme. Check for the salt here.
Once the onions are ready, add the broth to them and cook for 15 more minutes.
Assembling the French onion soup
Transfer your soup to oven safe serving bowls.
Top off with slices of bread
Add the shredded Gruyère on top
Broil for 3-4 mins. Be very careful as it burns pretty fast so keep an eye on it at all times. If you have a blow torch, you can also make use of that.
Looking for more soups and stew?
Try this winter stew
Or how about a butternut squash soup?
[…] Writing about all this food has made me hungry now! I’m gonna go heat up a bowl of some leftover French onion soup (recipe here). […]