French Onion Soup

What to do with an abundance of onions??? Make French Onion soup of course!!! I’m sure you have all had this delicious soup once or twice in your lives. It’s a caramelized onion and beef broth based soup topped with croutons and cheese.  It’s hard to believe this used to be known as the poor mans soup. I would pay good money for a bowl of this tasty stuff. In fact I would pay good money for anything with caramelized onions. Luckily I found a great recipe so I don’t have to pay anything at all and I can have it whenever I want. 🙂 It’s really one of those soups that are impossible to mess up. That’s probably why it tastes so good at every diner and deli you go to. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 4 onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup red wine
• 3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 quarts beef broth
• homemade croutons
• 1/2 pound grated Gruyere

Directions

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn’t burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

When you’re ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with croutons and grated cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to melt the cheese.

* For the croutons: Cut day old french bread into cubes. Drizzle olive oil and dried herbs of your choice onto bread. Bake for 10-15 min in a 350 degree oven.