Classic Onion Soup

The weather is finally cooling off and the holidays are just around the corner. You know what that means, time to make those favorite soups and stews that you just didn’t bother with during the summer months. One of my favorites? The classic French Onion Soup.

The beauty of this soup is that it’s easy. The only trick is letting the onions brown long enough to increase the depth of flavor in the finished product. Everything else is easy peasy!

So, grab your grandma’s vintage Hull or McCoy ovenware bowls and get ready for a winter treat.

Making Classic Onion Soup

• 3 medium-large white onions (roughly 2 pounds)
• 2 T butter
• 4 cans Campbells condensed chicken broth
• 1 can Campbells condensed beef broth
• 4 soup cans of water
• Pepper

Slice onions fairly thinly being sure to keep them uniform in thickness. Naturally, they don’t have to be perfect but, if you have too many varying thicknesses, you’ll end up with thin pieces starting to burn while the thicker slices are barely turning brown. Roughly 1/8” thick is about right.

Melt butter in your soup pot and add onions. Saute onions on a medium-high heat until they are well browned and caramelized. This is an important step. The caramelization is where the deep flavor comes from. Without it, you are making white onion soup. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with white onion soup but we’re after a smokier, more concentrated flavor for our soup so we need the caramelization.

After about 8-10 minutes, check your onions for color. You’ll see some browning starting on the bottom of the pan, this is exactly what you want.

Toss them around a little and then let them sit another 6-8 minutes and stir again.

If, at any time, it seems as though the pan is too dry and the onions are starting to burn, add a little more butter. Also, turn down your fire if necessary so they slowly brown and do not turn black.

About half way through the browning they’ll look something like this…

After they are completely caramelized (about 20-30 minutes) here’s what you’ll have…

As soon as they hit this stage, dump in all the broth and the water, turn fire to low and simmer about 45 minutes. Be sure you scrape up all the little brown bits off the bottom of the pan. This is where a lot of your flavor is.

After 45 minutes, test a piece of onion to check texture. It should be tender without being mushy and with no crunchiness. Once the onions are tender, taste the broth and adjust seasoning as needed. It probably won’t need any salt (due to the sodium content in the broth) but a little pepper is usually quite nice. If you like, you can even add a tablespoon or two of sherry or brandy just before serving.

The soup is plenty good enough to serve as is but I like having it “gratine” style. Slice the crusts off one slice of low carb white bread for each bowl of soup you’ll be making and toast until golden brown. Ladle hot soup into oven-safe bowls, place a slice of toast on each and top with a slice of Swiss or provolone cheese. Place bowls in the broiler until bubbly brown and serve.

You will yield about 10 normal bowls of soup from this recipe at about 10-12 carbs each. Naturally, you can save 5 carbs per serving by not using the toast.

Bon Apetit!