Ultimate French Onion Soup Recipe from Mon Ami Gabi (2024)

FAQs

How can I increase the flavor of French onion soup? ›

Traditional herbs like thyme and bay leaves work exceptionally well in French onion soup. Consider adding a pinch of dried thyme or a couple of bay leaves to the pot while simmering the soup. Experiment with additional seasonings like garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, or a splash of red wine for added complexity.

What is the Difference Between Onion Soup and French Onion Soup? French onion soup is always made with beef stock. Other onion soups can be made with chicken, vegetable, or beef stock. Additionally, French onion soup typically contains wine or sherry, which isn't typical or necessary in other onion soups.

The caramelized onions for this soup cook more quickly due to a pinch of baking soda but still have that deep, slow-cooked flavor. Topping the soup with hot, cheesy toasts prepared while the soup simmers, eliminates the need to bake the soup in specialty French onion soup bowls.

Cooking Instructions

Remove all packaging. Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Place product in oven-proof bowl with cheese facing up. Heat 40 to 45 minutes, or until cheese becomes golden brown.

"If your broth is lacking in savory richness, try adding roasted onion, tomato paste, mushrooms, seaweed, soy sauce, or miso. These ingredients add umami flavor and depth to broth," she says. The choice of ingredient depends on the recipe, though.

All soups and stews must have three major components in order to be tasty: an undercurrent liquid, aromatics, and volumizing ingredients.

Onions are very sweet, especially when they're cooked down, and that is the main purpose of onion soup. The sweetness can be balanced by adding some dry wine or vinegar. Taste as you go and don't overdo it. A little salt will balance it too, but don't forget that the grated cheese you will top it with is salty.

This soup traditionally is made with beef stock, though sometimes a good beef stock can be hard to come by and expensive to make. If you use boxed stock, taste it first! If you don't like the taste, don't use it. (If you cook a lot of beef or beef roasts, save the scraps and freeze them to make a stock with later.)

Panera Bread is working to regain customers' loyalty in 2020 with the reintroduction of its fan-favorite French Onion Soup. 2019 was a year of food news for Panera, not all of it positive. First, it removed the French Onion Soup, a staple on the menu for over 20 years, to make room for seasonal menu items in June.

The key to good French onion soup is to cook the onions so long that they threaten to melt into a viscous, dark brown paste, à la Marmite. As has already been extensively reported in Slate, there are no shortcuts when you're caramelizing onions; it always takes at least an hour, usually longer.

What is the best wine to use in French onion soup? ›

Wine is optional to deglaze the pan and add flavour to the soup. I recommend a dry white or red wine, such as a good quality Pinot Grigio/Gris, Sauv Blanc, Sémillon, Chardonnay, Merlot or Pinot Noir. Generally, if you can't drink it, don't cook with it.

If the heat is too high, the onions will burn. If you don't stir often at beginning and almost constantly toward the end, the onions will burn. If one little bit burns the whole batch needs to be tossed. Otherwise the soup ends up tasting like burnt onion.

It may sound a bit strange and unusual for some, but vinegar is a common ingredient in some soup recipes, and there is a good reason for it. If you think about it, vinegar is really a flavor-enhancer (umami). That's why it is so often used in cooking, sauces, and salad dressings. The same is true with soups.

With such a soup, a knife is your friend, not your enemy. Using both the soup spoon and the knife, push the baked cheese against the rim of the cup or bowl and cut it gently with the knife. Once you've broken the cheese barrier, you can use the knife again to nudge bits of cheese onto the spoon.

BUT, the BEST thing about French Onion Soup, is how that broth, is paired with perfectly grilled croutons or slightly charred, buttered slices of baguette, that are then covered with a large handful of nutty, aromatic, and stringy cheese, and broiled until golden brown an bubbling.

Use fresh, good quality ingredients like vegetables and herbs. Add a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice to your soup to make it taste better. Use a high-quality broth or stock as a base for your soup. Roast or caramelize your vegetables before adding them to your soup to bring out their natural sweetness.

There are several ways to reduce the acidity in soup. You can try adding a pinch of baking soda, a small amount of sugar, or a splash of dairy such as milk, cream, or yogurt. These ingredients can help to balance out the acidity and make the soup more palatable.

Onion soup, at its very essence, is nothing more than onions and water boiled together. Period, done, finished, everything added from that point on is pure opinion. Caramelizing the onions brings out sugars, and makes a more luxurious silky and sweet soup, adding flour gently thickens and provides body.