French Onion Soup with Cheese Toasts
I was a fussy child about almost everything except soup, which I would eat in whatever quantity you put in front of me. French onion is the one I graduated to as an adult, and it is still the most impressive thing you can build out of a bag of onions and very little else.
There is only one difficult part and it is the waiting. A kilo of onions needs the best part of an hour over a gentle heat to get from pale and squeaky to deep brown and jammy, and there is no shortcut. Turn the heat up and you get burnt onions and a bitter soup.
Most versions of this are built on beef stock, which obviously is not happening here. A good vegetable stock with a splash of white wine and properly caramelised onions gets you somewhere just as deep, and the onion itself comes through more clearly for it.
The cheese toasts want to go under the grill at the last minute and straight onto the soup. Gruyere is worth buying for this, as it melts into strings rather than turning oily. Serve it immediately, while the toast is still holding itself together on top.
French Onion Soup with Cheese Toasts
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Serves: 4 people
Serving size: 683g
Calories per serving: 533
Fat per serving: 27.4g
Ingredients
- 1kg onions, halved and finely sliced
- 50g butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 150ml dry white wine
- 1.2 litres vegetable stock
- 1 small sourdough baguette, sliced
- 150g gruyere, grated
- Salt and black pepper to season
Method
- Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large heavy pan over a medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions, thyme, caster sugar and a good pinch of salt, and stir to coat.
- Cook for 45-50 minutes, stirring every five minutes or so, until the onions are deep brown and jammy. This slow stage is the whole recipe, so resist turning the heat up.
- Pour in the white wine, raise the heat and scrape the base of the pan clean. Let it bubble for 3 minutes, until reduced by about half.
- Add the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Season carefully with salt and black pepper.
- Meanwhile heat the grill. Toast the baguette slices on one side, turn them over, pile the grated gruyere on top and grill until bubbling and patched with brown.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and float the cheese toasts on top. Serve straight away, before they soften into the soup.
Nutrition
| Nutrition information | Per serving (683g) |
|---|---|
| Energy | 2230kJ / 533kcal |
| Fat | 27.4g |
| of which saturates | 14.4g |
| Carbohydrate | 48.6g |
| Fibre | 5.4g |
| Protein | 18.9g |
| Salt | 3.7g |
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central for the ingredients as listed. Salt excludes seasoning added to taste. Values not shown could not be calculated reliably.
