How to Make French Onion Soup
French onion soup with melted Gruyere on homemade sourdough. So good on a cold winter day. And no, you don’t need the fancy oven proof bowls, read below for how we do it.
The most amazing French onion soup I ever had was at a little street side cafe overlooking the Basilica Sacré Coeur in Paris. We were ravenous after climbing endless flights of stairs and exploring all the nooks and crannies of this well known landmark. That soup was the best!
Of course, it’s possible that the location and being on an incredible European vacation with my beautiful and adventurous daughter could have had something to do with it. Nonetheless, that soup will live forever in my heart.
Making French onion soup is not difficult, it just takes time and patience to slowly caramelize the onions.
Which Onions to Use for French Onion Soup
Our onion of choice for this soup is the common yellow onion. Yellow onions have a strong flavor that mellows out during the cooking process and adds great flavor and depth to the soup. When caramelized to a beautiful golden brown, they also provide just the right amount of sweetness.
Sweet onions like Vidalia, Walla Walla or Maui onions are also an option often recommended for French onion soup. They’re typically only available during spring and summer. These onions are much sweeter with less pungent onion flavor. That may sound ideal at first, but onions loose their pungency and become sweeter when caramelized. As a result, sweet onions may create a soup that’s too sweet and lacking the savory depth that you get and with common yellow onions.
For the ultimate in depth of flavor, try a mix of yellow, sweet and red onions. Amazing!
Which Cheese to Use for French Onion Soup
I don’t want to be a cheese snob, but Gruyere is way to go for French onion soup. It melts beautifully and has a nice sharp, salty flavor. My hubby said it’s kind of like a Parmesan cheese that melts nicely.
If you need a substitute go for Swiss cheese. It also melts nicely and has a strong flavor to go with the soup.
Mozzarella will melt nicely, but it will be stringy and much milder in flavor.
Cheddar is tricky. You want the sharp flavor from an old cheddar, but sharp cheddar doesn’t melt as smoothly as mild cheddar. Maybe a combo of mozza and old cheddar would do the trick.
If you have a choice, treat yourself to Grueyere, after all the rest of the ingredients are pretty inexpensive.
By the way, did you notice the soup I had in Paris didn’t have melted cheese? It was just served with lots of shredded cheese on top of French bread. That was okay, but I’m definitely a fan of melted cheese!
What if I don’t Have Oven Proof Bowls
Don’t have official French onion soup bowls? No problem. You can still have delicious French onion soup with that glorious cheese toast on top.
Shred a big pile of Gruyere or whatever cheese you’re using and slice your bread – don’t skimp make it thick!
Preheat your broiler.
Place bread slices on a baking sheet and evenly distribute the cheese.
Place baking sheet under broiler for 2-3 minutes. Watch carefully, because it goes from bubbly brown to burnt very quickly.
Ladle the soup into serving bowls and top with a slice of cheese toast or two. Scrape off any cheese that may be on your baking sheet and add to soup bowl or eat right away before anyone sees!
Recipe for Homemade French Onion Soup
Homemade French Onion Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp canola oil
- 6 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (6 med onions)
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (optional)
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 6 cups beef or vegetable stock
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup grated Gruyere cheese
- 6 slices French bread
Instructions
- In large pot, heat canola oil over medium high heat.
- Add onions and garlic. Reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are softened. They will release moisture and start looking limp and clear.
- Remove lid, season with salt, pepper and thyme and continue to cook until onions turn golden brown and are caramelized. This can take from 45 min to 2 hours depending on how high you turn the heat and how sweet and caramelized you want your onions to taste. The lower and slower you cook (2 hours) the onions, the sweeter and darker the results. Stir and scrape up browned bits from bottom of pan frequently – the higher the heat the more often you'll need to do this. If brown bits are too stubborn, add a tablespoon of water, broth, beer, wine or wine vinegar to loosen them. Do not let anything turn black!
- When onions are to your liking, sprinkle onions with flour, stir well and sauté for 1 minute. This will add a little body to your soup, but is optional.
- Deglaze pan with red wine, scraping up all browned bits. Add broth, Worcestershire sauce, and bay leaves. Place lid on pot slightly askew and simmer for 15 minutes on low heat.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as desired with additional salt and pepper.
- Preheat broiler for 5 minutes. Arrange bread slices on baking sheet and top with grated cheese. Broil for 1- 3 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden, watch carefully.
- Ladle soup into bowls and top with cheese toast.
- If using oven proof soup bowls, place bowls on baking sheet. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with toast slices and sprinkle cheese evenly over top.Place tray of bowls under broiler. Broil on low for 3-4 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden.
- Carefully remove hot tray from oven, serve and enjoy.
- Makes 6 11/2 cup servings
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
Low and slow is the name of the game when it comes to this soup. It takes time to go from the crisp, sharp onions you start with to the sweet, tender, brown caramelized onions that give this soup its signature color and flavor. Take it as far as you want, just make sure there are no black bits!
The best part of making this soup is deglazing the pan when you add the wine and stock. You just know that all those browned bits are going to add amazing flavor. That’s 6-8 cups of onions that have caramelized and shrunk down. Oo wee were they sweet!
The best part of eating this soup is the cheese toast. The last time I made this soup we used our homemade sourdough bread and my word, it was fantastic!
Have you ever made French onion soup? What type of onion and cheese do you prefer to use?
When you make a bowl, please tag your photos on Instagram with @getgettys so I can see them and like ’em!
Sign up to get articles by Getty delivered to your inbox. You’ll get recipes, practical tips and great food information like this. Getty is a Professional Home Economist, speaker and writer putting good food on tables and agendas. She is the author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, a mom and veggie gardener.
