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(Experiment 16) French onion soup

A french classic today, the onion soup. I love eating this during the cold month of winter and burn the inside of my mouth because I cannot wait to taste it .

The classic version of this soup is made with beef stock which gives it a nice dark brown color. As I don’t eat meat, I am using vegetable stock which makes it a light brown. Taste-wise it’s fairly similar

Tip: always make extra croutons, especially if you invite me

You need

  • 50g butter
  • 4 onions
  • ~60g grated Gruyere cheese or whatever you prefer
  • 6cup vegetable broth ( or beef )
  • 1-2tbsp flour
  • 1cup white wine
  • 1tsp fresh thyme
  • 1 french baguette
Instructions
  1. Peel the onion cut them in half, cut each “butt” then slice them. Heat a pan over medium heat with butter then toss the onion in. The goal is to caramelize them, it’s a slow process but worthy. Keep stirring them every now and then until the bottom of the pan starts to have sugar stuck ( see picture ). This will take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes.
  2. Sprinkle some flour and stir making sure it’s all combined and there are no clumps. Let cook for another minute.
  3. Add the wine in and scrape the bottom of the pan. It will get you all that good caramelized flavor off the pan and in the soup. Plus it will make cleaning easier later on 😉
  4. When the wine is cooked off, add the broth and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add a branch of thyme in for about a minute and discard it.
  5. You can now prepare the crouton for the soup. Simply cut some thin slices of bread from the baguette and put them in the oven to broil a little. Remove them from the oven, flip them over and cover with cheese. Put back in the oven to broil the cheese.
  6. Now serve the soup and top with the crouton. You can garnish with fresh thyme leaves

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