Ultimate French Onion Soup

For this round of the recipe swap, it’s blogger’s choice where I am given a blog and I get to choose any recipe that I want. I got The Cookaholic Wife for my blog and I had a good time looking through all of the recipes to decide which one to pick. I ended up going with a recipe that I love and I’ve always wanted to make: French Onion Soup.

Now I’m probably a weirdo but my favorite part of French onion soup is actually the onion soup part and not the cheesy bread part. Don’t get me wrong, the cheesy bread part is fine but I love onions. And I love caramelized onions even more. I’ve never really made caramelized onions at home (well, very successfully, that is) and I figured this would give me an opportunity to give them a try.

I halved this recipe since there is just the two of us, but it still makes a good quantity of soup. I used gruyere cheese rather than provolone because I thought that was more traditional and I honestly didn’t look at what cheese the recipe specified before going to the store. The onions took a lot longer to caramelize than the 15 minutes the original recipe stated. I didn’t want my onions to be underdone! Despite cooking the onions a little longer, this soup was fairly quick to make. Oh my, this was so good and the flavors were just spot on! Thanks, Nichole, for a great recipe!

Ultimate French Onion Soup

4 tablespoons butter

2 onions, sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup red wine

1 quarts beef broth

1-1/2 tablespoons flour

Italian bread, sliced

Shredded Gruyere cheese

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the onions, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cook the onions until caramelized and soft, about 25 minutes.

Add in the wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated. Remove the bay leaf. Add the flour to the pan and stir well until all of the onions are coated. Reduce heat to low and cook for a few minutes to remove the raw flour taste.

Add the beef broth and bring the soup back up to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 10 minutes more.

For the bread, preheat the broiler and arrange slices of bread on a foil lined baking sheet. Top with the cheese and broil for 2-3 minutes until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

 Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the bread.

Recipe from The Cookaholic Wife