Description
Classic French Onion Soup, Soupe à l’Oignon Gratinée, straight from Burgundy, made with deeply caramelized onions, beef stock, white wine, and melted Gruyère over toasted baguette.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For Your Soup
- 3 - 4 medium/large yellow onions thinly sliced
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled, green germ removed, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup light cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup red wine
- 8 cups beef stock/broth or diluted veal stock concentrate
- 2 branches fresh thyme (1/2 teaspoon dried, or Herbes de Provence)
- 4 bay leaves
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- pinch chili flakes (optional)
- salt & cracked black pepper to taste
- 1 baguette, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 2 garlic cloves, whole, peeled
- olive oil to taste
- 2 cups shredded Gruyère cheese
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add onions, season lightly with salt. Cook slowly, stirring often.
- Once onions are transparent, add your sugar, continue cooking over medium heat for another 30 – 45 minutes until deeply caramelized and rich brown. Watch to bottom of your pot, to be sure you don’t burn your font. You’re looking for a rich, dark brown. If it starts to get too much colour, remove from the heat and deglaze your pot with a couple of tablespoons of water. You can do this as many times as necessary. Reduce your volume of onions to about one third.
- Degrease; off the heat, tilt the pot forward while pushing the caramelized onions upwards. Collect as much of the oil as you can.
- Return to the heat, add butter and garlic and red wine, scraping the bottom of the pot to release all browned bits. Reduce liquid by half.
- Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir for one minute to cook out the raw taste.
- Add beef stock, bay leaf, thyme, and black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for a minimum of one hour. Reduce volume of liquid by a little over a quarter of the original volume. The ideal ratio is 50/50 broth to onions. Personally , I prefer a thicker soup, so I reduce by a third.
- In the meantime, make your croutons. Place slices of bread with a drizzle of olive oil in oven at 400°F (205°C) until golden brown. Rub each crouton on both sides with whole garlic cloves. Be generous, it makes all the difference. Reserve until needed.
- Returning to your soup, remove herbs. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Ladle soup into oven-safe bowls, leaving a 1/2 inch for toppings.
- Top with toasted baguette slices and grated Gruyère (see notes on cheese below)
Notes
Notes on cheese: Gruyère, Comté, Aged cheddar, are all acceptable but PLEASE, no mozzarella. It’s soft and fatty and will make your soup greasy and oily.
