I’ve tried French onion soup in a few restaurants but I never liked it. Probably because I tried it at chain places that used frozen or dehydrated. But from what’s in it — beef broth and roasted onions — this is something I should just love.
So I decided to make some for myself and see. And, surprise, when made with real ingredients … this stuff is good.
(But I still need a good copycat recipe for onion soup mix to use in recipes, like dip. Oh, and while you’re here, you might want to check out my Pizza Soup.)
Ingredients
4-5 large onions, about 4 pounds, red and/or sweet
2-4 sprigs fresh thyme
3-5 bay leaves (oops, forgot them in the photo)
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
flour, about 1/4 cup (see note below)
1-2 cups wine
8 ounces beef broth
Directions
I decided to make this because I had a container of beef broth in the freezer. I had kept the drippings from the Christmas rib roast, the pot roast, every time I cooked beef for a month it went into the freezer. You can do it with canned beef broth, but try to find one with as few additives as possible.
Start by prepping the onions. Cut off both ends and cut them in half.
Peel the outer layer, then cut into thin strips.
Melt a few tablespoons of butter or fat (I’m using bacon fat) in a dutch oven over medium heat.
Add the onion, minced garlic, bay leaves and thyme and set heat to medium-low.
Cook until the onions start to turn translucent without mixing them.
Oops, forgot to add salt and pepper.
Turn the onions a few times to make sure everything gets some time on the bottom to caramelize. Don’t worry too much about burning the onions. All that burned on goodness is going to be pure flavor. That’s what the wine is for. Use it to scrape up everything off the bottom, then cook the onions for several minutes, stirring frequently, until most of the wine is cooked off.
Some people insist it has to be white. Some insist it has to be red. Since I’m not a wine drinker, I don’t really have a preference. So I used the bottle that was open.
The thyme and bay leaves should have given up all their flavor by now, so go ahead and fish them out.
Add a little flour to the onions and cook for about 5-10 minutes, until the dry flour taste is cooked out.
Start with just enough flour to just coat the onions lightly, only a couple of tablespoons. Hold the rest in reserve until you add the broth and see if it has thickened enough, or if it needs more.
Now add the beef broth. Since mine was very concentrated, I did four ounces of broth and four ounces of water.
Simmer for another 20 minutes to a half-hour to reduce the liquid and concentrate the flavor. Ladle into oven safe bowls and add croutons to the top.
The croutons are to keep the cheese from sinking. Lots of recipes call for gruyere, which is crazy expensive. I like a slice of swiss and a slice of provolone.
Put the baking sheet with the bowls on it under the broiler for a couple of minutes* until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown on the edges.
* NOTE: When I said “a couple of minutes” I forgot that not everyone has used the broiler before. MissFoxxy left hers in a little too long and discovered you can set cheese on fire. Don’t walk away from it, and check frequently.
Be careful, the cheese will hold the heat in really well, so it’s going to stay hot until you dig in.
Try not to eat all the cheese in the first four bites.
And that’s it.
Like I said up top, I’m still looking for a good copycat recipe for dehydrated onion soup mix. There are a ton of great recipes that call for a packet of it, but have you seen the ingredients on that stuff? [shudder]
If you’ve got a recipe for it that doesn’t include beef bouillon cubes, which are just as bad, please let me know in the comments. Or better yet, post the recipe in the forum.
89 Comments
Kenna, let me know how it comes out.
Kristi, I hope you’re not living in the Eastern time zone, or you make your people wait way late for dinner.
LOL Drew, now its the next day. I forgot to come back after eating last night. The soup is the BOMB!!! I loooooved it! TAkes a while to make but is well worth the wait.
PS: I’m in the Mountain time zone….LOL.
Looks delicious! I have been looking for a good onion soup recipe for a while. I had pizza soup last night (my own version) so I think that this might make it on the dinner list for tomorrow night! Thank you for the recipe!
Sarah, where did you first hear of pizza soup? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it.
Ooooooooooooh man! I made this 2 nights ago! It turned out pretty amazing if I do say so myself!
I was only making it for 2 so I used 2 onions, 1 cup of Chardoney (called Oops at Target for $10)I used Swansons certified organic beef broth, I didnt have fresh thyme so I just sprinkled a little dry in….ALSO lucky me i had some Gruyere (sp) hanging out in my fridge from an asparagus/puff pastry recipe!
SUPER TASTY! The flour did through me off. I used way less since I cut down on onions, but it was way thick, I think I used about 16oz beef broth to get a good consistancy
Simply…Yummy for my tummy!
MissFoxxy, thanks for the feedback. I think I’m going to go add a note about the flour.
BOY did I make a mistake – I accidentally clicked on a subscribe button somewhere in your blog and have been getting MEGA emails from EVERYONE posting to you – whew!…glad that’s over…..can’t wait to try this soup – but will wait for the Vidalia’s – they’re the best!
HELP!!!!!!
It won’t let me unsibscribe -…please release me … let me go….
Anon, you must have subscribed to the comments instead of the main feed. If you had an email subscription you could send me an email and I could unsubscribe you. But the comment feed is via RSS, so you’re going to have to do it from your feed reader. Sorry I can’t be more helpful than that.
If you can’t figure it out, send me an email and I’ll see if I can walk you through it. (Keep in mind I only know the Google feed reader really well, so I’d be guessing at how the others work.)
Yum….
Hi. Made this recipe today and I have a question about the wine. I used a white (Turning Leaf Chardonnay) and although I was very pleased with the final result I did notice a heavy after-taste of alcohol from the wine. It made me wish that I had burned the alcohol off but I guess its too late for that now.
Did you burn off the alcohol in yours and if not, did you happen to notice anything similar with yours?
Chris, I did cook it down until most of the wine was gone before adding the broth. It’s also possible the flavor that I used — and I know any “real wine drinkers” are having an absolute fit that I called it a flavor — was milder or matched the onions better.
Thanks for the reply, Drew.
I thought I had reduced the wine down far enough before adding the broth, but I could be wrong. Also, Turning Leaf is a VERY cheap wine and it is very acidic so that could have played a part as well.
Today I decided to experiment on the leftovers so I cooked it down quite a bit. Once reduced; I added a bit more broth and some water. After about 30 minutes of simmering the alcohol after-taste was gone and all was right with the world! I think I will try burning the alcohol off next time, just in case.
All-in-all; your recipe made a great soup that I plan to make again in the future. Thanks for posting it!
Chris, I’m glad it finally worked out. I believe I mentioned in the article that while I cook with wine, I don’t drink it.. So most of what I have to say about wines is based on recommendations and working from smell. Since taste and smell are so closely related, I figure if I don’t like the smell I won’t like the taste in my food.
Brilliant. I’ll link to this recipe at http://www.garlicoon.com
it woudl be nice to know how many servings this makes…..
Jeff, that's a real good question. We got four helpings from it, and that was a bit less than half of it, maybe closer to a third. The rest of it got turned into broth or used in making onion dip, so I really don't know exactly.
I have seven children 5 boys 2 girls. I have to make things fast and cheap. I came up with a quick sub for onion soup mix and it is better than I thought it would be.
Here is the recipe:
3 Tablespoons butter
melted in iron skillet.
Add:
2 Tablespoons dried onion, on medium low heat, toast, or carmelize, to desired depth of brown. Turn off the heat.
Add:
2 Beef Bouillon cubes.
When the cubes absorb the butter they will soften, smoosh them and mix with onions. Let this cool.
To make Onion Dip, add cooled onion mixture to:
about 2 cups of sour cream, stir. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. (You may want to add a dash of Worchestershire Sauce before refrigerating.)
I use this mix (minus the sour cream step) in a meat loaf recipe, or pot roast or anything the packaged soup mix can be used for. Carmelizing the onions in the butter makes a huge difference in the flavor.
I haven't measured but I think this equals about half the amount in one package of soup mix.
I know, I LOVE all of the freshest and finest ingredients as well as anyone else. I also like to know how to feed an army of teenagers when they all converge on my home, without breaking the budget. With 5 boys I have had every eating machine in droopy pants stopping by for dinner for more than 12 years now. I cook from scratch most of the time. We go for quantity with quality and some of it comes out of cans for the sake of time. But the same kids call and say "I am going to be in the neighborhood. What are you cooking tonight? Can I come over?"
Thanks for all of the wonderful information here!
I found your site earlier today while looking for Sourdough Bread recipes. I have my starter almost ready to use. I love this site! I am sending all of my 7 children, and their friends, to this site so when they all leave home they can benefit from it. No one leaves my house without knowing how to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. Just like Grandma used to make!
Anon, thanks for the kind words. You can also point the kids at the free online course. They can sign up at the to of the blog.
Try it with meunster cheese–mmmm…
Barb, I'm a big fan of muenster. Though for some reason I rarely have it around. I mostly like it melted, and I usually don't cook my sandwiches.
I absolutely LOVE the fact that there's clearly arbor mist wine on the counter… Makes me feel like this is a recipe I could actually accomplish. thank you!
Credit my wife for the wine. I'm more of a mixed drink guy myself.
Drew,
About the onion soup without bouillon cubes: Make your own bouillon cubes. If you have a dehydrator, it really not that difficult, the ingredients are 100% all-natural and come from directly beef, spices, and seasonings you have in your kitchen. You can easily search for recipes via google, but if you would like I can post my personal recipe for making bouillon cubes which, when combined with a few more spices and dried onion flake, make a great substitute for onion soup mix.
P.S.
I found your blog thanks to a TFD thread on Fark.com about how yummy your soup looks.
Mythias, please do post it! I've been looking for a good substitute for a while, and most of them start with making the soup and dehydrating it.
Just wanted to let you know that I tried making this for the first time today. Used your recipe but used red, sweet and yellow onions, more of everything else and minus the thyme (cooking for 9 and just didn't have thyme around). The house smelled AMAZING and the taste was better. Thanks for sharing, this is definitely a keeper!
Well, Jenny, you and I must be in tune because I also made this today. It was fantastic! I was planning on serving it in a bread bowl, but somehow I ran out of flour (how does that even happen?). So instead I scooped out the center of one of those jumbo onions you can find at the farmer's market and poured the soup in there. It looked pretty cool!
Jenny, people always say they don't have time for cooking. But then when they … what? Oh, thyme!
Bellnoyd, I don't think I've ever seen an onion so big I'd use it for a bowl. That would be awesome.
I read through this recipe and decided that I HAVE to make this. I absolutely detest using bouillon cubes, but at the same time I don't have time to make home made broth. Could I go out and buy a carton of broth to substitute?
As for the wine bit, I can understand using a red wine with a red meat broth, but I myself am allergic to high sulfites. I'm going to go ahead and try this with a white wine and I imagine it'll taste just as delicious.
Jessica, sure you can use store-bought broth. It's better than using the cubes, and definitely better than dehydrated soup.
I'm not shooting for perfection. To me, the question is always, "Is it better than the alternative?"
OMG this is so good!
Yum I will make this. You are making me hungry. I do love Gruyere though. We have a little cafe in town that is run by a French gentleman and he makes the best onion soup I have ever had. We went to France and tried onion soup everywhere – his was still best. I have been striving to attain it for years. Of course he won't share his recipe but I know he uses Gruyere cause I saw him buy in one day in the market.
Thanks and I will try this out for sure!
DP, I'm not a fan of secret recipes. You might have noticed that little logo in right column near the top there.
If you don't have kids, you probably haven't seen Kung Fu Panda. There's a great bit in there about the father's "Secret Ingredient Soup".
Yeah! Great!
I made french onion soup once with broth I made from leftover rack of lamb bones. It's really interesting how it alters the flavor! I really liked it but after about the third bowl all you can taste is lamb. I live in Japan now so it's hard to get a lot of ingredients to make soup stocks. Next time I find beef bones I will make this!
I'm on my 4th batch of French Onion soup. I can't cook very well so I'm trying to master a few things. So far it's either too thin or too thick. I'll try this next time.
gah! plans for today are to make a massive pot of french onion soup to freeze and give my little sister for a christmas present (so she can have a reprieve from my father’s cooking!) … but this morning i opened my eyes and my first thought was “i forgot to get fresh thyme!” bummer… guess i’ll have to use dried! but mmmm, this is a great recipe, nice and simple!
Drew – YOU are my hero! All my favorite foods in one place – with pictures so that even I can make them. French onion soup is just the thing for tonight. It’s a freezing 6 degrees here in TEXAS!