French onion soup
For when you want delicious soup, but you also want to cry while preparing it.
French Onion Soup
Time: 2ish hrs | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Slow weeknight meal
What French guy years and years ago said, I want a delicious, perfect soup, but I want to be in searing pain as I prepare it? You have to suffer for this soup, but that makes it even better in the end. This recipe is not mine, it’s adapted from Mary Berry, which is a pretty perfect recipe (it’s just too big, so I’ve pared it down to be for one person plus leftovers). Make sure you give the onions a really long time to caramelize, because that’s where all the flavor comes from. You can also use either chicken broth or beef broth, whichever you can find that’s better! And if you don’t have an oven-proof bowl, you can toast the gruyère-bread separately and just put it on top at the end.
Ingredients/Tools:
3 white onions
Butter
1 tbsp sugar
100ml white wine
32 oz of chicken or beef stock (one box if you buy a box)
Herbes de Provence or thyme
Bread
Gruyère
Dijon mustard
A big pot
Method:
Chop the onions into strips.
Melt a ton of butter and a touch of olive oil in a big pot (the olive oil helps the butter not to burn).
Add the onions and coat them in the butter. Let them soften for about ten minutes, lid on, then add the sugar and stir well.
On low-medium heat, cover and let them caramelize for a looong time. Check every so often and stir them around a bit, checking so they don’t burn.
When they’re a deep brown and smell all sweet and sugary, add in the wine and reduce it down.
Once the wine has reduced, add the stock, cover, and simmer for a bit to get all those flavors together.
Add in the thyme or herbs, pepper, and salt to taste.
To prepare, put butter and dijon mustard on a slice of bread. Then grate on some gruyère. Toast in the oven at 375 until the cheese is bubbly and melty, then add it on top of the bowl of soup.