French Onion Soup is one of Mandy’s favorites. Fortunately, she couldn’t help but make us a whole pot full! And I just couldn’t help but write about it, hope she doesn’t mind sharing her recipe!

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Millennial Pen in Hand

Ahhh, it’s finally Fall… we made it.

It’s that mysterious in-between time of year where everyone decorates their lawns to scare the kiddies and we all suddenly remember that pumpkin spice is hands down one of the best flavors of all time (just kidding…or am I?).

Regardless, we’re not here to talk about Halloween or pumpkin spice coffee, at least not yet. No, as you may have guessed from the title, we’re going to be talking about a classic soup with a tiny twist: French Onion Soup! Extra Onion Please!!!

I would say an onion is like the Jack of All, but with a soup made specifically for onions we can’t say they’re master of none.

Really, think about the magnificent versatility of the onion. I can chop it up to garnish salads, grill it if I’m feeling a little spicy, eat it raw (no judgement here), or sauté it to release deeper unmatched flavors.

All I’m saying is that if we all aspired to be our own little incredible onion, the world would be one heck of a French Onion Soup!

Chris

I’ve said my piece on society and how we compare to onions. Let’s get down to what we’re here for. Let’s talk about that French Onion soup, namely, the onions.

Get to know the ONION in French Onion

We have a lovely little chart below if you want a quick rundown. However, I plan on talking briefly about each of the three onions we used for this soup.

*Mandy Mentionable: The Vidalia Onion is superior, and therefore, should be used in any and all dishes.

Yellow Onions

The yellow onion, nothing quite like ol’ reliable am I right? This is the onion that kitchens around the world go to because of its ability to cover so many bases. That’s why this is typically the onion of choice in French Onion Soup.

In fact, I’m confident that if you were to type in “French Onion Soup ingredients” into google, the onion, without a doubt, would be yellow. Every kitchen I’ve ever worked in, every catering event I’ve attended, all of them have these onions in stock. Truthfully it would be embarrassing if they didn’t, but I digress.

Red Onions

Now red onions are a bit more specialized in that this onion has defining features that make it unique. These onions are a beautiful deep reddish-purple. I remember as a kid the first time seeing a red onion and just thinking, “no way, that’s not an onion, no way no how”. But, lo and behold, popping that bad boy in my mouth, it sure tasted like an onion.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper when I first tried red onions. Thankfully, times have changed and so have I. Flash-forward 15 years to now and you can see me slicing, dicing, chopping, & chomping (yes chomping) on red onions.

Now, the reason Mandy and I decided to use red onions is that we find the typical French Onion soup to be very, how shall I put it, salty. We believed that the naturally sweeter flavor of a cooked red onion would help to counter this as well as provide a touch of color.

Vidalia Onions

If you missed that Mandy Mentionable, these are 110% Mandy’s favorite onion. There was absolutely no way to argue making an onion soup without these. At any rate, I was not going to argue, and Vidalia onions have not let us down before, so in they went.

You don’t think I just agreed to this without any research, though, did you? Heck no! I don’t just throw stuff in things without considering how it’ll come out.

Mandy, I’m looking at you.

So, Vidalia onions are a part of the sweet onions, and they’re not typically used in soups. Nor do they get sautéed or roasted. That being said it was interesting to find out that Vidalia’s, among other sweet onions, are typically used for onion rings! It makes sense when you think about the sweet notes that come from biting into a freshly fried, crisp, crunchy onion ring, MM-MMM!

After learning this, it made us that much more curious how this three onion masterpiece would come together. At any rate, we weren’t going to wait any longer. It was time to put everything together! It was time for NOMS!

Three Onion French Onion Recipe!

Now that I’ve talked your ear off about onions, without further ado, I bring you the Three Onion French Onion Soup Recipe!

3 Onion French Onion Soup

Chris

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 44 minutes mins

Course Soup

Cuisine French-American

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

• 2 Large yellow onions
• 2 Large red onions
• 2 Large Vidalia onions
• 6 Garlic cloves finely chopped
• 4 Tbsp Butter
• 4 Tbsp neutral oil avacado/canola/vegetable
• 1/2 cup Cabernet Sauvignon dry red wine
• 2-3 Bay leaves
• 1 tsp thyme
• 5 sprigs fresh rosemary ~ 1 1/2 tsp
• 8 cups Beef Broth Organic
• Mozzarella/Swiss/Provolone cheese sliced or shredded
• 1 Baguette sliced and toasted

Instructions

 

• I hope you brought tissues. First you want to slice all of your onions. Cut them in half through the root then ¼” slices should do. Using the same cutting board and knife, finely chop the 6 cloves of garlic as well. Set these aside for now.
• Next, we’re going to be caramelizing these bad boys. Get yourself a pot. Mandy’s Note: A big pot. Like a pot that’s big. Chris said 4-6 quarts, but I don’t know what that looks like. Pick a pot larger than what I would probably choose… which is not big
• Low and slow is the way to go. Our heat is set to medium-low. Add 4 Tbsp of butter& 4 Tbsp of oil. Turn down the heat if the butter sizzles immediately. Add sliced onionsto the pot and stir frequently for about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Optional: you may sprinkle in 1 tsp of brown sugar to help with the caramelization process. Eventually the onions will become translucent, this is when you add the chopped garlic. Cook onions until golden.
• Deglaze, Deglaze, DEGLAZE! That’s right now that the onions are golden brown, theywill be sticky, leaving all those goodies at the bottom of the pan. Well don’t you worry, go ahead and pour the ½ cup of CabernetSauvignon in and scrape up that flavor. Mmmm! Increase your heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Next add the bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, & all the beef broth. Bring it to a simmer and let the soup finish cooking for about 30 minutes. This allows the flavors of the freshly added herbs to incorporate as everything comes together.
• About 20 minutes in, I recommend slicing up that baguette and toasting it for 5-10 minutes until it is golden brown and delicious (GBD for short).
• Use a ladle to portion this soup out intobowls or ramekins that are oven safe. Place your crispy baguette slices atop your soup, then cheese it up! Mandy’s Note: Mound that cheese – you’ll know what feels right –and place them on a tray and into your hot oven until brown and bubbly (like me)

Notes

The time it takes to make a good dish can really
be a drag, but here’s a tip:
What really takes the longest for this recipe is
caramelizing the onions. If you plan on making
this dish for guests, family, or any events, you
can par-cook the onions ahead of time. When
it’s soup time, finish sautéing the onions and
deglaze THAT pan and you’re ready to go!
Additionally, how you cut your onions is not an
exact science. So long as they are close in size
and not too small, they will sauté just fine!

Keyword French Onion Soup

Results and Take-aways

That certainly was a doozy, wasn’t it? In hindsight, we learned a lot and plan on revisiting this recipe to make improvements. Nevertheless, having gone through the steps and reaped our reward… the results are in!

We were shooting for a French Onion Soup that was on the sweeter side and got exactly that. The variety of onions combined with the ooey-gooey cheese mixture resulted in a meal that was savory with a subtly sweet finish.

Our onion soup came out slightly sweeter than expected due to the brown sugar. Which wasn’t a problem for us as those sweet undertones were what we wanted. However, if you prefer things more-so on the savory side, reducing or omitting the brown sugar will not ruin this recipe in the least bit. The sweetness from the onions, specifically those Vidalia’s, adds plenty of flavor and you need not worry about missing out.

Overall, this recipe gets an 8/10, only because of how time consuming proper caramelization can take. In spite of this, the soup is flavorful, sweet and savory, can be frozen and reheats great!

Thank You So Much

The Millennial Pen in Hand social media accounts are available to the right. If you had fun reading this article you should really share it, like, with everyone you know! And please, make this soup!

We are always striving to improve the meals we make because food is a wonderful thing that should be shared among wonderful people. The only way that we can get better at what we do is if you speak up and tell us what you think. Comment on this post, dive into our other posts, if you get the chance check out our social media accounts and get involved.

We’ve shared with you a bit of our story, now let’s hear about you and your delicious meals.

To end this, Mandy and I would just like to thank you for reading this through. Thank you for being you, and we look forward to our next adventure.