French Onion Soup Gratin

A French cuisine classic but also a staple "restaurant" dish. This is those kind of dishes I used to shy away from ever even thinking I could make at home because it simply seemed "too tasty" therefore "too hard" to make at home. Another part of me perhaps even thought, "I am not French. So I cannot cook French food...." literally all B.S.

1) Soup is SUCH a great thing to learn to cook at home. It can be easy, tasty and super nutritious.

2) You do NOT have to be French to pay justice to a French dish lol (of course...!)

and 3) This really is the EASIEST recipe to make.

I do not think there is a way to mess up this recipe. The only mistake you could make is perhaps not cooking the onions enough (which with this recipe, should be avoided!) and the 1 thing your soup will absolutely rely on is flavour.

The great thing about French Onion Soup is that it relies on 3 simple things (which you already most likely have at home and can use).

First, browning the onions as long as possible. Then, using a good wine. Lots of recipes call for a dry white wine, but I preferred red for a rich taste and more colour. And finally, a great stock or broth. I used a mix of my own homemade chicken broth and some beef stock (just cubes).

My chicken broth was simply made by cooking leftover carcasses/chicken bones from leftover roasts I have saved over a few weeks in the freezer (also a similar way to making bone broth, recipe here).

All in all, this is one of those soups that does NOT have to be cooking for hourssss to get a good flavour or taste. Therefore, it makes it a perfect mid-week dinner and winter warmer. It is also great to make for loved ones and impress them, or even as a little starter to your dinner if you fancy a two or three-course meal at home.

So, let's get started!

Ingredients:

(Makes 6 servings)

- 5-6 large white/ onions

- 2-3 Tbsp Flour (any white flour will do).

- 2-3 Tbsp Butter (to cook onions in).

- 2 Pints of Chicken/ Beef Broth or Stock (I used 1:1 of each)

- 1 Garlic bulb

- 2 Cups Red Wine (or white)

- 2-3 Bay leaves

- Sprig of Thyme

- Salt & Pepper (for seasoning)

- Bread (for the crouton)

- Gruyere cheese (for gratin)

Method: you can also watch the video below.

1) Start off by thinly slicing all onions. You want to make the soup in your biggest pot, I recommend using a cast iron casserole pot or the largest one you own. Stainless steel is what I used and 2nd best! Heat up the butter and once melted, add all thinly sliced onions at medium heat. Watch closely the onions so they do not burn. This is the longest part of the recipe so take your time with the onions, making sure they brown (this will take some time) without burning.

If they are not browning after 5 minutes, you can turn the heat up a bit, if they look like they are burning in some bits but not browning, turn the heat down. In this step, I kept adding the lid on and off my pot just to really let the onions sweat in between using my wooden spoon to move them around.

2) After a good 10 minutes, add the garlic bulbs (crushed with a garlic crusher straight into the pot), the sprig of thyme, the bay leaves and some salt and pepper. Again, adding the lid back on and sometimes mixing, you can start seeing some brown bits at the bottom of the pot.

This is GREAT for the soup and you definitely want more of these as they bring ALL the flavour! (Making this soup basically burnt my pot, but hey, that's what Brillo is for!).

3) After a good few minutes, once the onions are a deep yellow almost light brown colour, you want to add the flour, give them a mix around, let the flour cook off for a bit and then pop the lid back on. This is all on a medium heat and the flour will thicken up the soup later.

4) Once the onions and the flour were really sticking to the pot and the bottom is basically brown all over, you want to add the wine to deglaze the pan.

Deglazing helps get all the stuck bits at the bottom of the pot off of it and into the liquid. This is what brings so much flavour to the soup as well as thickness.

5) After letting the alcohol from the wine cook off for a few minutes and letting it reduce, add 1 pint of your stock / broth of your choice. Letting that cook for a few minutes, followed by the last pint of stock or broth.

I then leave this cook for around 20 minutes at least on medium/low heat after bringing to a boil (you want to let it come to a boil then reduce the heat), letting the soup get thick, rich and dark in brown colour and all the onions sort of melt into the soup.

Once it is ready to serve, taste it and see if it needs extra salt & pepper. Turn your oven grill on to 180 degrees.

6) Finally, prep a large crouton by cutting a piece of bread, grilling or toasting it and serve your soup in oven-proof soup bowls.

7) Once your bread is toasted and soup in bowls, place the large crouton/ toast in the soup floating and grate HEAPS of Gruyere cheese all over the crouton and soup.

8) Finally, place the soup bowls under the oven grill and let the Gruyere crouton become golden, bubbly and fully melted.

The soup will be HOT so make sure to let it rest for 5 minutes minimum before diving in.

and ENJOY!

All in one pot, nutritious from a rich stock, incredible tasty and indulgent.

Makes the perfect light lunch or dinner, great way to start a meal and impress ANYONE you love.

Let me know if you try it in the comments.

Love,

Horty x