Piping hot French Onion Soup is a great way to greet the cold winter weather. Watch the stale bread come back to life when coated with golden, bubbly gruyère and given a chance to soak up the delicious rich soup.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr10 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: French
Keyword: 10 ingredients or less, batch-cooking, comfort, family-friendly, freezer-friendly, soup
Melt butter in a very large soup pot over medium heat.
Add the sliced onions into the soup pot.
Squeeze the garlic cloves through the garlic press.
Add the fresh thyme and bay leaves to the soup pot.
Mix evenly.
Season with pepper.
Season with salt.
Allow the onions to brown and caramelize. It will take about 25 minutes so be patient. See the recipe notes for tips on caramelizing onions.
When the onions look caramelized like so, turn the heat up to high.
Add the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Mix in the wine. Allow the wine to evaporate, about 10 minutes.
While waiting for the wine to evaporate, fish out the thyme and bay leaves. Discard.
When the wine has fully evaporated and the onions are dry, add the flour.
Lower the heat to medium. Stir the flour and allow to cook for 5 minutes. The flour should cook so it doesn’t have the raw flour flavor. But don’t let it burn.
Add the beef broth. Bring the heat up to high.
While waiting for the soup to boil, chop the prosciutto into thick slices.
Add the prosciutto to the soup pot. Bring the soup to a simmer, about 10 minutes.
Prepare the cheese and bread
In the meantime, preheat the broiler.
Grate the gruyère.
Prepare the bread. Chop into cubes if using an Italian loaf. If using baguette, slice instead.
Arrange bowls on a baking sheet.
Ladle the onion soup into each bowl until half full.
Top each bowl with the bread cubes/slices.
Sprinkle a generous heap of grated gruyère on top of the bread.
Slide the baking sheet with bowls into the oven broiler.
Monitor the soup to prevent the cheese and bread from burning. Broil for approximately 3 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden brown.
To speed up the caramelizing, place a pot lid over to steam the onions. It will allow them to cook faster. But you don’t want soggy onions, so it is important to take the lid off for at least 5 minutes at the end to ensure the water fully evaporates.
Using only butter can be difficult because it has a lower smoking point. Add a dash of olive oil or canola oil if you find the pot is smoking too. much to avoid burning.