French Onion Soup Recipe

Real Restaurant Soup Recipe

If you have some onions and beef broth you can make French Onion Soup. It has been made for centuries and was once considered a soup for poor people. I guess because almost everyone must have had onions available.

The modern version of this soup apparently originated in France in the 17th century.

The onions were caramelized, added to beef stock and topped with dry bread (croutons) and cheese.

From the reading I have done, the cheese that was used was gruyere, a cheese made in the Gruyere district of Switzerland. This restaurant soup recipe calls for using Swiss cheese, a cheese that is a member of the Gruyere family of cheeses.

The soup is usually finished by placing it in a slow oven to melt the cheese. When serving this soup at the restaurant, often the servers deliver two napkins to the guests.  :-)

French Onion Soup Recipe

Favorite Restaurant Soup Recipe

Preparation time: 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of onions, sliced or diced (it is easier to eat if you dice the onions) and sauteed until brown
• 1 quart basic brown stock
• 1/3 cup white wine
• Pinch of thyme
• 1/3 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon sherry
• French bread, toasted lightly in oven
• Swiss cheese, sliced

Instructions:

• If the brown stock you have doesn't have enough flavor, reduce it until the flavoring is pleasing
• Heat all ingredients except the sherry together in a sauce pan
• Salt to taste
• Add the sherry
• Place the sliced French bread on a sheet pan
• Place a slice of Swiss cheese on each slice of bread
• Place in a slow oven until the cheese is melted and lightly brown
• Ladle soup into bowls and top each with the bread/cheese combination

TA-DA!  Enjoy your famous restaurant soup recipe and the company of those you share it with!

Donna

“A soup like this is not the work of one man. It is the result of a constantly refined tradition. There are nearly a thousand years of history in this soup.”

Willa Cather