Soupe á L'Oignon

French Onion Soup is one of my favorite things to order at a restaurant. It's because of the ooey gooey cheese melted over the bowl and the rich sweet and savory broth underneath. It always seemed so difficult to make for some reason. But, then I learned how (in Paris, of course), and it's like most French dishes: few ingredients, maximum amount of flavor, and not very complicated.

I had a ton of onions one week and I don't like them raw. Cooked only, please!

Onion soup sounded like a great solution to my overabundance-of-onions issue. I also had chicken stock in my fridge that needed to be used, and a bottle of white wine that I was opening to preserve my garlic cloves. So, I decided, even though it was not going to be a traditional onion soup, to do it anyway. Because, you see, onion soup is made with beef stock and red wine. I'm such a rebel.

So, here's how it's done (if you want the real deal, then please, please, please, use red wine and beef stock instead!):

First, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a stock pot or dutch oven. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic and sautee for a few minutes on medium heat.

Add 3 sliced yellow onions, and cook on low heat for 20-25 minutes, until they look brown and soft, as pictured above.



Then add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir to coat the onions. After than cooks a few minutes (to get rid of the raw flour taste), add about 1 cup of wine. To the pot, add about 8 cups (2 quarts) of stock. Let it simmer for 30 minutes to thicken a little bit.

In the meantime, prepare the cheesy toast. Use any type of bread - crusty French bread is the best - and toast it in a toaster or in an oven...or in a toaster oven! Traditionally, you can ladle the soup in an oven-safe bowl and top it with toast and grated cheese (ideally, gruyere, but if you can't find it - like me that day, you can use any melty white cheese. I used Asiago. Not perfect, but it worked). Stick it under a broiler until it melts...and voila! Soupe a l'oignon!!

I cheated and toasted the bread in the toaster, put it on a plate, topped it with cheese, and popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds. I plopped it on top of the hot soup and served it up. That works too. Top, pop, plop. Haha. I think I'm reaching my silly hour. I'll leave you here. Bon appetit!

p.s. The substitutions were ok. It tasted better after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, but it wasn't bad with chicken stock and white wine, just not authentic!