French Onion Soup Bread Bowls
This recipe combines two individually delicious things: French onion soup and bread bowls. Combine them and these French onion soup bread bowls will blow you away.
Equipment
- Stainless steel pot
- Baking sheet
Ingredients
- 3 onions 1/2-whole onion per serving. To your taste!
- 3 tbs butter 1 tbs butter per whole onion
- 2 tsp salt divided
- 1/4 cup dry white wine could also do red wine or just broth if you don't want wine
- 6 cups beef broth 1 1/2 cups per serving
- 4 tsp flour
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp pepper
French Onion Soup Bread Bowls
- bread bowls
- grated gruyere cheese Use whatever cheese you prefer but I recommend gruyere
Instructions
French Onion Soup
- Slice onions lengthwise to create onion slivers. These are perfect for caramelizing.
- Melt butter in a stainless steel stock pot over medium heat.
- Add sliced onions and half the salt to the stock pot.
- Stir the onions occasionally while caramelizing on low heat. If they are drying out you can add some of the wine, some of the broth or water to keep them from drying out. It takes 30-45 minutes for the onions to reach optimal flavor for the soup.
- Once the onions are caramelized, add the flour. Stir it in and allow it to cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Deglaze the bottom of the pot using the wine (or some of the broth). Make sure you get up any of those stuck on bits. That's delicious flavor!
- Slowly add the broth while whisking.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.
- Simmer the soup for 30 minutes or until your desired consistency is reached.
French Onion Soup Bread Bowls
- Cut out the tops of your bread bowls.
- Rub the tops with olive oil and put both the tops as well as the bread bowls themselves into the oven on either 450° or broil and watch them closely. You just want to lightly brown them.
- Remove from the oven and when you're ready to serve them, ladle the soup into each bowl.
- Top the soup with the grated cheese. Place the bread bowl tops back in their place. Top with additional cheese.
- Put back into the oven for only a couple minutes, just until the cheese is melted.
- Serve immediately. The bread bowls hold up to the liquid of the soup really well but you still don't want them to sit for too long. Don't ladle the soup in until it is go time for dinner. The entire process from soup ladled in to first bite shouldn't take more than five minutes.
Notes
The note about the onions: I want you to think about what you and your family would prefer. I like my French onion soup full of onions but that may not be the case for everyone. Anywhere from 1/2 an onion to a full onion or even more per serving is a personal choice.
Whatever you decide for the onions, you want one tablespoon of butter per onion for the best caramelizing results.
When scaling this recipe up or down, remember you want 1 1/2 cups of beef broth per serving.
You also want one teaspoon of flour per serving and one tablespoon of wine per serving.