One-pot French onion soup that’s rich and comforting, full of herb aromas and sweet caramelized onions bubbling with melted gruyere cheese and softened baguette pieces. Every spoonful is rich, overflowing with slow caramelized onions and a gooey cheese pull for the perfect classic comforting soup.

Adding a family favourite and all time classic dish into our line up- French Onion Soup! You just can’t go wrong with a bowl of this once Fall hits. Every year around this time we’re just dying to make a big batch. If you’ve ever made French onion soup, you know that it’s pretty straight forward but there’s just something about it that has you coming back for more! I don’t know what it is about this soup that makes it so good. It has to be the cheese, wine, and herbs. 

SLOW CARAMELIZED ONIONS

Since this recipe calls for very few ingredients, it’s important to get the onions right. They are the star and at the centre of it all. The only way to really caramelize onions properly is slowly with butter. The process happens naturally as the onions sweat and cook down with the butter they will evenly deepen in colour and flavour and turn jammy. Adding any type of sugar or the wine too early in our opinion is cheating and doesn’t do it justice. 

Once the onions are ready, the rest of the soup making process is easy. Now some recipes call for flour over the onions to stop their cooking process and can also help with thickened of the soup. Our recipe doesn’t have flour mainly because in this soup we didn’t find it made a difference and we didn’t want the flour to take away from any of it’s flavours. If you want to add flour you can- it’s optional just dust a bit over the onions and stir until you don’t see any white then add your wine. 

Deglazing the pan is an important step because the liquid will warm and loosen all the browned bits at the bottom of your pan. It’s not burnt and it’s full of concentrated flavours that enhance the soup and deepen the taste. Scrape away at the bottom while the wine cooks down to ensure you get every last bit into the mixture. 

Once the soup has simmered for a bit and it’s been taste and adjusted to your licking, it’s time to transfer it into some oven safe bowls or ramekins. We like to add the bowls to a baking tray to make it easy to transfer in and out of the oven. The finishes touches happen in the oven- you’ll add 2-3 slices of baguette depending on the size of the bowls to the top and layer a generous amount of shredded gruyere cheese across the bread. The last step is to broil until the cheese is melted and soup is bubbling. This shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes. If you don’t have any oven safe bowls, the next best thing to do is to place baguette pieces in a single layer on a baking tray and cover with cheese. Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and simply place a few pieces in the soup bowls. 

We hope you enjoy this recipe! If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it on Instagram! We love to see what you come up with. #thecommunalfeast Follow along our social media account on instagram for quick videos on how our recipes come together. 

Print Recipe

French Onion Soup

One-pot French onion soup that's rich and comforting, full of herb aromas and sweet caramelized onions bubbling with melted gruyere cheese and softened baguette pieces.

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course: Soups

Servings: 6

Author: the communal feast

Ingredients

• 5 medium yellow onions thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 TBS better than bouillon
• 2 cups water
• herb bouquet oregano and thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• French baguette
• block of gruyere cheese

Instructions

• 1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven or large soup pot. Add the onions and cook on low for 1 hour, stirring frequently until caramelized. Onions should be a deep gold and jammy.
• 2. Bring the heat to medium and deglaze the onions with the white wine. Scraping the browned bits at the bottom while the wine cooks down just a bit.
• 3. Stir in the broth, bouillon, herb bouquet and water. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to simmer 10 minutes, covered. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
• 4. Transfer soup to oven safe bowls, top with two pieces of baguette and cover completely with shredded gruyere. Broil in oven until cheese is melted and bubbling. Garnish with extra thyme. Enjoy!