Recently Cook's Illustrated Magazine ran their 2nd article on French Onion Soup in the last 3 years. The new recipe requires around five hours start to finish. While most of that is passive time, waiting for the onions to cook down, that's still vastly too long (in my opinion) for something which is supposed to be a first course.
Fortunately for you, loyal reader, I several years ago created a recipe for a French Onion Soup which is not only possible to prepare in under two hours of mostly passive time, it's also vegetarian! The one caveat is that you really need to have the right ingredients; substitutions don't work on this one.
Francophilic Soup
- 6 large brown onions (see note)
- 1 liter vegetable stock (see note)
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed but not peeled
- 2-3 sq. in. cheese rind (see note), wrapped in 6 in of cheesecloth
- salt to taste
- 2 tbs butter
- 1 tbs oil
- 3/4 cup red table wine
- 1/2 a baguette or other European-style bread
- 4-8 oz gruyere, emmenthaler or other swiss-style cheese, grated
- 6qt stock pot, large strainer, large dutch oven (or similar large-bottom pot), 4-8 oven-safe soup bowls, cookie sheet, broiler
Halve the onions, cut the ends off and skin them. Dump the clean ends and skins in the stock pot. Add the bay leaf, 1/2 the thyme, garlic, wrapped cheese rind, and salt if you feel the stock needs it. Bring to a boil, then simmer for one to two hours.
Once the stock is simmering, thickly slice the onions. Heat the butter and oil in the dutch oven until the butter foams, then add the onions. Carmelize the onions over medium-low heat (uncovered) for 40 to 60 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom no more than once per 15 minutes. Once onions are getting soft, sweet and stringy, deglaze the pot with the wine. Strain the stock into the onions, add the rest of the thyme, stir, correct the salt, and leave covered over low heat for at least 10 minutes.
Heat the broiler. Slice the bread 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick, and trim slices to mostly fill the top of each bowl. Toast the bread (you can use the broiler for this). Line up the bowls on the cookie sheet, fill each one 3/4 full of soup and onions, float a toast on top and cover with the grated cheese.
Place under broiler until the cheese bubbles and starts to brown, 3-6 minutes. Serve immediately.
Notes
The onions need to have good brown paper skins free of mold, since you need the skins for the recipe. For the stock, you want a clear vegetable stock which is not at all sweet: demi-glace like Better Than Bullion is the best, with Pacific stock-in-a-box a 2nd choice. For homemade stock, make it with lots of aromatics and no carrots or potatoes. If using meat stock, use beef and not chicken.
A cheese rind is the hard, inedible end portion of artisan cheeses, and it's a good idea to keep some in your fridge for soup uses. The rind of the cheese you're topping the soup with is ideal, but parmesan also works. If you can't get one, then use a slice of cheese. You wrap it in cheese cloth to keep it from sticking to the pot.
Note that the classic onion soup bowl is a bell-shaped porcelain bowl; if you don't have that, look for a stoneware soup bowl which is as narrow and deep as possible.
This soup does not keep well, so only make as much as you expect to use. Serves up to 8 people as a first course or 4 to 6 as a main course. Quantity of bread, cheese and bowls will vary with the number of diners.
