Onion soup with crunchy bread with cheese on top
There is something so satisfying about a really good onion soup. Of course you serve this with a piece of bread on top which is loaded with cheese. Just quickly roast to melt the cheese and it’s time to dig in.
Onion soup
Onions are one of those ingredients that you probably have in the house. It’s a humble ingredient and with prices going through the roof, it’s pretty affordable in general. But it is also the start of many really good dishes so using them is one of my favorite ways to enhance the flavor in a dish.
However, I had not made onion soup before until I went slightly crazy when the onions where on sale a while back. I purchased way too many onions so the natural thing to do was to make an onion soup. Now onion soup is one of those under rated soups I think. It is super simple to make and done well, it is packed with flavor and so delicious!
Crusty bread
I like to serve mine the French way with a piece of bread on top. The bread is then topped with lots of cheese and melted under the grill. Just quickly but it will create so much extra flavor and make this ordinary onion soup a really delicious onion soup.
What’s the difference between onion soup and french onion soup?
Now there’s a good question.. To be honest the difference is small. The french use yellow onions and the soup itself is usually made with beef stock instead of any other stock. Regular soup can be made with any kind of onion and you can use any kind of stock you like. In this case I opted to keep the soup vegetarian and so went for the vegetable stock. But feel free to make it more French if you so desire. The preparation is roughly the same.
Some other things that go into the French version of onion soup; white wine, bay leaves, butter (of course) and obviously the onions.
Which onions do you use?
You can use any kind of onions in the soup. Just make sure to leave them to simmer long enough so they become really soft and caramelized. Use either red onions, as I did here, white onions or yellow onions. Even shallots would work. They would just require much more cutting.
How do I prevent tearing up when cutting the onions?
If there is a way to avoid that? Please let me know! Since there is quite a lot of onion to go through here, I peel them, cut them in half and toss them in the machine to chop. You do want them to be in rings and not small pieces so make sure you use the right attachment for this.
I’ve seen people wear goggles, ski masks and lots of other things but I think the crying part is never far away. It’s almost impossible to prevent!
French onion soup
Ingredients
- 1 kg red onions
- 200 ml red wine
- 2 bay leaves
- 700 ml beef stock
- 125 gr butter
- olive oil
- bread
- grated cheese
- pepper
- nutmeg
- smoked paprika powder
Instructions
- Clean the onion and cut in rings. This is handy to do with a foodprocessor if you have one, to avoid a tear bath, but you can definitely do it by hand.
- Put a large pan on the stove with the butter and gently bake the onions here until caramelized and soft.This takes quite a bit of time, so take 20 minutes to half an hour to make them really sweet and nice. Add the wine and cook for a bit so the alcohol evaporates mostly
- Pour in the stock, add some water (according to the instructions on the jars) add the bay leaves and the spices and leave to simmer for some time.
- Taste and add seasoning if needed. If not, you can pour the soup into four soupbowls (heat resistant!) and put a piece of baguette in each bowl. Generously sprinkle with grated cheese and put in the oven to melt and get a nice brown crust O and make sure you remove the bayleaves too
Notes
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
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