French onion soup classic

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 1 hr 30 mins

1. STEP 1

   

   How to make French onion soup? Prepare your food. I advise you to take white onions, they are much tastier, in my opinion. Choose the highest quality butter - the taste of the soup depends on its taste. It's the same with cheese. Instead of chicken broth, you can use vegetable broth or just water.

2. STEP 2

   

   Peel the onion and cut it, first into quarters, and then into thin half rings.

3. STEP 3

   

   Take dishes (frying pan, saucepan, saucepan) with a thick bottom and high sides. I have this saucepan. Melt butter in it.

4. STEP 4

   

   Place all the chopped onions in the melted butter.

5. STEP 5

   

   Fry the onion in oil over high heat first, stirring occasionally. The onion should turn golden - this is the most important thing. This means that the caramelization of sugar has begun, which, by the way, is very much in onions. It is this process that will give the soup a special flavor.

6. STEP 6

   

   Be patient and fry the onions for about 20-30 minutes without leaving the stove. You can turn down the fire. The onion will significantly lose volume and change color. The aroma when frying will be very tasty! Make sure that nothing burns, use your stove as a guide to the frying time.

7. STEP 7

   

   When the onion is ready, pour the broth into the pan, not all at once, but in parts. And start boiling it. When the broth has almost evaporated, pour in the next part and simmer it again.

8. STEP 8

   

   Readiness depends on your taste. You can leave the soup thinner, or boil it until thick. Taste for salt. If the broth is not salty enough, add salt.

9. STEP 9

   

   An integral part of onion soup is the baguette croutons. In my case, loaves) They need to be dried until they become hard, either in the oven or on a grill pan.

10. STEP 10

    

    Ladle the onion soup into heatproof bowls. Place one crouton on top and sprinkle generously with grated cheese. Place the bowls in an oven preheated to 200 degrees, preferably under the grill. The cheese should melt well. Once this happens, remove and serve.

Comments on the recipe

Victoria

11.08.2023

4.7

In winter, you really want to warm yourself up with something hot, so I like to warm myself up with hot soups. I was already tired of my homemade soups, so I decided to find something new. I really liked the recipe for classic French onion soup, it looks quite unusual. True, I don’t really like cooked onions; after heat treatment, they seem to me to be too much and unpleasant. But I decided to take a risk and make this soup. And I was not mistaken. I caramelized the onions for quite a long time, I didn’t measure the time, I was guided by color. It turned out to be quite a caramel color. I followed the advice in the recipe and added about 120ml of white wine before the broth. Stirring, waited until the alcohol evaporated, and then added chicken broth. The broth was without spices, so I salted it and peppered it a little. I used two types of cheese: Parmesan and mozzarella. These are my favorite cheeses, I like how they stretch when melted. The soup stayed in the oven for only 5 minutes at the specified temperature. When the soup was ready, I sprinkled a little dried parsley. The soup turned out amazing. Outwardly, it looks more like a casserole or gratin rather than a soup. The taste is very pleasant. The broth is slightly sweet, but in moderation. The onion turned out to be tasty, not disgusting or slippery, but pleasant. Croutons add a special taste, although croutons make any soup tastier. I regretted that I didn’t use rye croutons, I think it would have been even tastier. And of course, cheese complements the taste of the soup; it stretches perfectly and is not at all greasy. All ingredients combined with each other make the soup very tasty. Despite the fact that the soup is prepared from one onion, the broth turned out to be quite rich and the soup was satisfying. True, I didn’t have enough broth, I like it when there is more broth in the soup, I eat grounds, so next time I’ll try to make more broth. The French, of course, were great, they were able to come up with such an unusual soup recipe from ordinary onions. And even now in winter, this recipe is very relevant, since onions save you from colds and are useful to use for prevention. So I will be making this soup all winter. Thanks for posting this recipe!

Natalia M

11.08.2023

4.7

My husband has been asking me to make him onion soup for a long time, and I’ve had the recipe languishing in my bookmarks for a long time. To be honest, I haven’t cooked it before and didn’t even know how to do it. It was only clear that it contained a lot of onions) I studied the recipe and prepared this soup. Cutting such a quantity of onion is quite a challenge) I fried it in a cauldron in which I usually cook pilaf. This is convenient because... There is a lot of onion and it needs to be mixed. Once caramelization began, the amount of onion was greatly reduced. Then I started adding chicken broth, it wasn’t salty, so I added a little salt and pepper. I left the thickness to medium, my husband said that the consistency was similar to a stew) Then I baked it with crouton and cheese. My husband was pleased! He said that the taste was sweetish and pleasant. There is no bitterness, it disappears during cooking. The onion becomes soft, but holds its shape. Very interesting recipe, I gained valuable experience, thank you!