Why You Should Make This Version of French Onion Soup
It’s not all about the cheese
A few things: 1) It’s officially wintry enough in my world that I want to start talking about hot soup. Sorry, Phoenix. 2) Despite the headline, I have nothing against French onion soup, at least in theory.
What I am against is that the majority of restaurants that serve this dish, or used to, when we could go to restaurants, would have you believe that its most important component is a piece of toast blanketed in gooey cheese. If that were the case it should be called “open-face bread nacho with onion sauce” or something equally backward.
There’s nothing wrong with a crisp crouton and melty Gruyère (nothing at all!), but more often than not, the actual soup part of onion soup is kind of an afterthought (too sweet, not flavorful enough, basically a letdown, especially after you’ve dispatched of the cheesy bread part).
So, here’s my version, which prioritizes pulling as much flavor as possible out of the title character: onions. Maybe the reason that meh French onion soup remains viable is that making a good version yourself is a process that can’t be rushed. Properly caramelizing onions takes easily an hour; kind of no way around it. And homemade stock, if you’re going that route, takes time too. Beef stock is classic for this…
