Home made French onion soup recipe

Inspired by an overnight trip to Paris (I'll blog about that soon), I decided to whip up a batch of French onion soup for me and my dad over the Christmas break. 

Being a fantastic cook, my mum does the most amazing French onion soup so I'll be honest - this was not as good as hers! 

With just a few simple, humble ingredients, there is magic in the process that transforms them into a delicious, warming soup at the end. The magic ingredient? Time. Don't rush this. Yes it is an easy recipe but it is also time consuming. 

The key to this recipe, is the caramelisation of the onions. You don't want to burn the onions but you do want them a delicious golden brown! Get this right and you have your French onion soup. 

Ingredients:

50g butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil 

750g onion 

1tsp sugar 

4 garlic cloves

2tbsp plain flour 

1 glass of white wine

1.3 litre of hot beef stock 

French stick 

grated cheese (traditionally Gruyère cheese) 

First off, prep the onions and thinly slice them

In a large heavy based pan, melt the butter with the oil

Tip – use a large based pan that is shallow, with a large diameter, rather than a pan that is small but deep. The bigger the bottom of the pan’s surface area, the better the onions will caramelise

Add the onions and fry with the lid on for about 10 mins until soft. Sprinkle in the sugar over the cooking onions, and simmer for 20-30 minutes more. Stir them frequently so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. You want the onions to have soaked up all that lovely sugar and transformed into caramelised onions. They should be really golden and brown and not white still. You don’t want the onions to burn so don’t have it on too high a heat

For the final few minutes of onion cooking time, slice the garlic and add into the pan

Finally, sprinkle in the flour and stir well. This helped thicken the soup

Increase the heat and keep stirring as you gradually add the wine, followed by the hot stock, adding in a ladle at a time. There is something wonderful cooking with wine – the aroma will be amazing

Cover and simmer for 15-20 mins

When you’re ready to serve, cut off chunky slices of the bread, and grill both side. Ladle the soup into bowls and pop the grilled bread on top. Pile on the grated cheese – add as much as you dare I say!

Of course one of the best bits of French onion soup is the giant French bread croûton and cheese floating on the top of the soup. A masterpiece of food! 

If you are doing this properly, then you'll put your soup and cheesy croûton bowl under the grill to brown off the cheese and allow the fallen bits of cheese to melt into the soup. 

Voila... soup is served! 

X x X

Like this soup recipe? How about these ones?

creamy spinach and coconut soup
100 calories green veggie soup
Rocket and potato green soup 
And for a great French onion soup, head to Le Petite Bistro in Guernsey!