With the winter months upon us, we tend to find ourselves looking for some cozy comfort food. We particularly enjoy making different types of soups for those cool nights to warm us up. One of our family favorites is French onion soup. The kids just get a kick out of the cute little crocks we serve it in and they simply just love the broth and bread combo, always clearing out their bowls.

 

We’ve made several different recipes for French onion soup over the years, but we find this one we adapted from Keri Poulios to be the easiest…and the BEST! We figured this is the perfect time of year to share this delicious soup recipe with you.

 

Cheers!

 

 

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 large onions, sliced (2 sweet yellow, 1 purple)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons flour

5 (15-ounce) cans of beef broth

2 ½ cans water (empty broth cans)

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup Port wine

1 cup red wine (preferably a decent Cabernet Sauvignon)

1 Parmigiano-Reggiano rind

French bread (sliced, toasted, then cut into bite sized pieces)

Gruyère cheese, grated (sometimes we blend a little grated Parmigiano-Reggiano into the Gruyère)

 

Directions:

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter with the oil. Add onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaves and cook until the onions are translucent and caramelized. Add sugar and flour, cook for 1 minute. Add beef broth, water, salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in wines and Parmesan rind, simmer for 2 hours.

 

Prepare the broiler to serve: Pour soup into onion soup crocks. Place the French bread pieces on top. Cover bread with the Gruyère cheese. Put crocks on a baking sheet, place in oven and broil until cheese is melted and bubbly.

 

Total cook time: 2hr 55min

Prep time: 15 min

Serves 6-8