French Onion Soup

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French was one of my favorite classes in high school. It felt dynamic and alive! Madame taught us both the language and about French culture. She’d been to France numerous times, and would tell of the food, the music, the landscapes, the people. I became a bit of a Francophile listening to her stories.

I wanted to experience it all. I wanted the café au laits, the croissants, the cheese. I wanted to walk down the Champs-Élysées and see IM Pei’s Louvre Pyramid. I wanted to buy a Paris Match magazine and throw a franc or two into a busker’s guitar case. I wanted to see the Alps and the medieval villages. All of it.

Madame was one of those rare teachers that really enriched her classes beyond homework and rote memorization. She brought in pop music from France, American movies that had been dubbed in French, taught us French poetry, took groups to see Les Mis, and every year, French club got to go to the premiere five-star French restaurant across the river.

I saw that as my chance to experience a little piece of France. Up until then, the closest I got to France was looking at my mom’s bottle of Chanel #2 perfume.

That French restaurant was the kind of restaurant with a dress code. Men were required to wear a suit jacket. No exceptions. It was the kind of place businessmen and business women went for power lunches, the kind of place you took your partner on the night you proposed, the kind of place where one lunch special cost the same as dinner for two (with drinks) at a sit-down chain restaurant.

I don’t remember how much we paid, but I can assure you Madame negotiated a good deal for us. I went to a public school that served a predominately working-class population. Parents weren’t dropping money for five-star restaurants on the regular.

It was a special experience.

Leading up to the event, my friends and I discussed what we would wear and everything our parents told us about good manners for fine dining. We boarded the bus in our best outfits feeling fancy, grown up, and just a little bit French for the day.

I’d taken up the vegetarian diet by then, so I talked to Madame beforehand to make sure it would be ok for me to eat there. The restaurant did accommodate me with some entrée which was unmemorable, but the French onion soup and the chocolate mousse were a dream. (I’ll talk about the mousse in another post.)

I know now that the soup was likely made with beef broth, but I didn’t know that then. I was told it was vegetarian, and what did I know about French onion soup? My culinary skills consisted of cutting up veggies, microwaving lasagna, and boiling water for ramen.

That was the 90s in the Midwest. Maybe in California you’d get a vegetarian entrée on the menu, but here, you were eating iceberg lettuce salad and a baked potato. Maybe you’d get a fettucine alfredo and ask them to hold the chicken. For some reason, some people think that broth and fats don’t count. At any rate, I didn’t see meat, so I took them at their word.

I didn’t even like onions that much, but that soup was transformative.

French onion soup is, dare I say, the perfect amalgamation of flavors and textures.

The sharpness of raw onion transforms into a rich sweetness as the onions slowly cook down and caramelize. Rich broth adds umami; pungent cheese contrasts the sweetness of the onion.

Texturally it’s a blend of balances, too. Tender, almost jammy onions, crisp bread that slowly softens in the broth, a creamy cheese pull.

It was spectacular.

As an adult, I was fortunate enough to go back to that restaurant a couple times. I didn’t revisit the soup, knowing about the beef base, but they offered a remarkable cheese soufflé.

With changing times, the restaurant closed its doors forever almost two decades ago after a long run of 56 years. We had another French restaurant for a while. The head chef had previously been chef de cuisine at the 5-star place, but this new restaurant was more casual. It was still a “nice” restaurant, but there weren’t dress codes and table crumbers. It was lovely, though, and it reflected more modern times and tastes.

Wow, though, to be 17 years old, able to understand most of the words on a French menu, and be treated to service and food unlike anything I’d ever had before. What an experience.

Modifications

· Used veggie broth instead of beef broth (enhanced the umami by adding mushrooms); increased quantity of broth

· Eliminated the water because I started with broth, not bouillon

· Used soy sauce instead of Worcestershire

· Used 2 slices of bread for each bowl (my loaf was small)

· Topped with grated gruyere instead of grated parmesan cheese

o If you use fresh grated parm, that’s probably fine, but I was not going to put this much effort into a dish to top it with canned parm.

(TIP: use a mandolin to prep the onions for thin, even slices.)

Betty Crocker’s French Onion Soup

· 3 cups sliced onion (about 3 medium)

· 2 tablespoons butter

· 2 cans (10.5 ounces each) condensed beef broth (bouillon)

· 1 ½ cups water

· 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

· 2 thin slices French bread toasted

· Grated Parmesan

Betty Crocker’s French Onion Soup, Suz E.’s Way

Serves: 4 (one cup servings)

Ingredients

· 3 cups sliced onion (about 3 medium)

· 2 tablespoons butter

· 1 ½ quarts vegetable broth

· 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

· 2 cups sliced Shiitake mushrooms

· 1 teaspoon soy sauce

· 4 thin slices French bread (8 if the bowl is wide and the bread is narrow)

· 4 tablespoons grated gruyere

Instructions

Though Betty doesn’t say this, I saw on other sources that the goal of this first step is to caramelize the onions, low and slow. In a large, covered pot over low heat, add the butter and onion. Cook about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. By the 30-minute mark, the onions will have reduced in size quite a bit. You should start to see a faint color change in the onions.

At the 30-minute mark, increase the heat to medium low and cook about another 15 minutes, continuously watching and stirring every 30 seconds or so to keep the onions from burning. This is when they really start to caramelize. Times may vary depending on your stove or how thinly you’ve sliced your onions. You want them tender but not mushy.

While the onions are cooking, to a different medium sized pot, add the veggie broth, shiitake mushrooms, and thyme. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce heat and let it simmer the full time the onions cook (about 45 minutes).

When the onions are done, caramelized and tender, carefully strain the mushrooms out of the broth and add the broth to the pot with the onions. Add soy sauce, a few grinds of pepper, and a pinch of salt. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low cover and simmer another 30 minutes.

When you have about 10 minutes left on your timer, preheat the oven to broil and grate the gruyere cheese.

Ladle soup into oven safe bowls. Top each bowl with a slice (or 2, if small) of French bread. Top the bread with gruyere. Put the oven safe bowls on a baking sheet and broil for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly and slightly brown.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Rating

5 / 5 Red Spoons

Perfection. Will make again. It takes some time, but it’s worth it.

You can download a copy of Suz E’s version of the recipe by clicking the PDF below.

French Onion Soup Recipe

74.2KB ∙ PDF file

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