What if we told you that preparing homemade French onion soup was easy and not just for nights out at the bistro? 

Skip braving the cold to head out to a restaurant the next time you’re craving this comfort food.  You can recreate the bubbly, blistered cheese topping, caramelized onions, and crispy bread in your own kitchen, and the broth itself is simple to make, too. 

There is a common misconception that stews or soups are challenging to make. Perhaps we assume this because of how easy it is to buy ready-made canned soup, or maybe we believe that making soup is always a time-consuming process involving heavy pots, lots of vegetable chopping, and hours of stirring. 

This isn’t true. A traditional French onion soup recipe is fairly quick and easy to make, with only five minutes of prep work, 35 minutes of laid-back sauteing, and another 20 minutes of waiting. We promise you won’t chop more than one vegetable, either.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 55 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 

Servings: 5

Ingredients

For the soup: 

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 

• 5 large yellow onions, thinly sliced

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra to taste

• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• ½ cup red wine 

• 4 cups beef broth

• 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• 2 sprigs fresh thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• ½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar

• Fresh ground black pepper

For serving: 

• French bread, sliced

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 ½ cups swiss or gruyere cheese, shredded 

• ¼ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

• 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated

Preparation instructions 

1. Gather and prep all of the French onion soup ingredients as described above.  

2. Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large soup pot or dutch oven. Add in the sliced onions and sauté until they are soft. This will take about 10 minutes. You use caramelized onions for French onion soup. To get the proper texture and finish, you need to sauté the onions slowly and carefully, stirring to prevent burning. 

3. Turn the stove down to low heat while continuing the caramelization process, which will take around 30 minutes. Add in the salt and sugar, which help the onions release their own sugars, resulting in a perfect caramelized finish. Get out a good book while you wait. Since the heat is low, you only need to stir the onions roughly every 5 minutes. 

4. Once the onions are caramelized, add in the garlic. ‍

‍Chef’s tip: Garlic burns fast, and the taste of charred garlic tarnishes a recipe. Whenever you add garlic to a sauté, make sure that more liquid goes into the skillet or pot soon after. Many recipes say something along the lines of “cook until fragrant” when they instruct you to add garlic to a pan. Only cook the garlic until you can smell it and then add in the next ingredient(s). Some recipes like garlic confits allow for much longer cooking times, but minced or sliced garlic will burn in the blink of an eye in lower-fat dishes. 

1. Pour in the red wine and stir. Congratulations: you have just “deglazed” a pan and learned a cooking skill. “Deglaze” just means adding broth or wine to a pot to help loosen up golden bits of food stuck to the bottom of the pan, improving overall caramelization. 

2. If you plan to toast bread for serving, preheat your oven now to the broil setting. 

3. Add the beef and chicken broths, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and bay leaf to the pot, and simmer at medium heat for 20 minutes. You’ll only need to stir occasionally. Remove the herbs carefully with a slotted spoon or fork after the 20 minutes have passed to ensure that you don’t accidentally end up with a tough bay leaf in your mouth while eating. 

4. Pour in the vinegar and stir to combine. Taste the seasonings, and add salt and pepper to taste. 

5. Take the soup off the heat or reduce your stove to its lowest setting—just hot enough to keep the soup warm as you follow the next steps for preparing your cheese and bread.  

6. Take the bread slices and brush them with olive oil on each side. Place each prepared piece on a baking sheet, and then broil in the oven for 2-3 minutes, carefully turning the bread at the halfway mark for even toasting.

Chef’s tip: Broiling is a process in which your oven applies direct high heat to food. When you bake in your oven, the unit fills up with heat, but the heat is concentrated right above the food when you use the broiler. This process is similar to grilling. 

1. Place oven-safe soup bowls on a baking sheet. This recipe serves five, but you can make as few bowls as you wish. You can also repeat this process with leftovers. Ladle soup into each bowl, leaving room for the bread and cheese. Place one slice of bread in each bowl, and then sprinkle the top of the soup generously with three or four of the different cheeses recommended in the ingredients list above. 

2. Carefully move the baking sheet with the bowls on it to the oven, and broil until the cheese has melted and turned golden brown. Remove the baking sheet from the oven just as carefully as you inserted it, and enjoy the soup once cool enough to handle and eat. 

Recipe adapted from Belly Full

photosimysia - stock.adobe.com

Nutrition Information

• Calories: 378

• Fat: 24 grams

• Saturated Fat: 13 grams 

• Carbohydrates: 21 grams

• Protein: 18 grams 

• Cholesterol: 60 milligrams

• Sodium: 1014 milligrams 

• Potassium: 782 milligrams

• Fiber: 3 grams 

• Sugar: 9 grams

FAQ

What is the correct French onion soup cheese? 

Try a mix of swiss cheese, gruyere, mozzarella and other potently-flavored cheeses like parmesan for best results. 

What type of onions make the best French onion soup?

Our recipe calls for yellow onions because they’re incredibly flavorful. For something less sweet, you can try a red onion. If you’re all about sweet, substitute sweet onions in the recipe above. This is definitely a matter of personal preference.

Can I make this recipe vegetarian? 

Yes. Swap the chicken and beef stock for vegetable broth. If you want to make this recipe vegan, you can substitute the dairy cheese for plant-based varieties. 

What is the correct bread for French onion soup?

As this is a French recipe, we highly recommend baguette slices or thick pieces of French bread.

Brent Hofacker - stock.adobe.com

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