French Onion Soup

Mmmm....this was perfect for our cold weather over the weekend.   It's delicious!  I love this soup, and I used Tyler's Ultimate recipe.  It makes a pretty big pot of soup, so make sure you have 4-6 big eaters around, or cut the recipe in half. 

I'm putting the original recipe up, but I made some changes to it.  It calls for you to use a baguette, but I'm not a huge fan of French bread, so I just cut some dinner rolls in half and melted the cheese on top of those.  I used Swiss cheese because it's cheaper than Gruyere, and I'm on a budget, especially this time of year.  I also didn't have any thyme sprigs, but I had some ground thyme, so I added probably 1/4 of a teaspoon. 

French Onion Soup

1 stick butter
4 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup red wine
3 heaping Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 qts beef broth
1 baguette, sliced
1/2 pound grated Gruyere cheese

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme, and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes.  Add the wine, and bring to a boil.  Then reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes.  Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.  Add the flour and stir.  Turn down the heat to medium low so that the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.  Add the beef broth, bring back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler.  Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere, and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3-5 minutes.  Ladle the soup into the bowls, and float a few Gruyere croutons on top.  Alternately, you can ladle the soup into the bowls, top each with two slices of bread, and top with cheese.  Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.