French Onion Soup

Serves 2 Gluttonous People, Maybe One if You’re Ambitious.

4 medium white onions, sliced

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoon Black Cherry vinegar

3-4 C vegetable stock

Pinch of thyme

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp salt

1 ½ teaspoon fresh rosemary

1 C Pinot Grigio

8 oz Gruyere, chopped or shredded

French bread, toasted

Start by peeling and then halving the onions. Slice the onions at an 1/8^th of an inch width. You don’t want them too thick. 

Put them in a 2 Quart Pot or whatever semi-deep pot or pan you have lying about. You’re going to combine all of the ingredients into so make sure it’s large enough. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the onions, two tablespoons or so, just enough to coat them. Light up the stove to a medium-high heat. 

Once the onions have softened, add the vinegar. It can be whatever kind of vinegar you like, we prefer a bit of tart in our dishes, but you are more than welcome to go the original route and add two teaspoons of sugar.

Overall the onion process will take anywhere from 30-40 minutes. We usually leave them a bit longer because we try and get them just before they’ll char for a more rustic flavor. 

Add the chopped garlic and sauté it with onions until it is just browning.

Add the stock to the onions. We used vegetable stock because it’s a bit lighter and not as heavy as the traditional beef stock. We’ve used chicken as well, and it is just as delicious. We use the vegetable stock as a vegetarian alternative because we live in Flagstaff. Google the demographic.

As a side, we only use 3 Cups of stock because we like our soup a bit thicker, more like a stew. Add more stock as you see fit.

I wait about five minutes from adding the stock before adding the wine so the stock has time to invade the onions a bit.

Now, one cup of wine is quite a lot. But we love it and are borderline alcoholics. Again, it’s at your discretion. Really we add a bit more because we like having a faint taste of wine. I would say a normal person would add about a ½ Cup of wine. 

            We've been toying with the idea of using a red wine instead; perhaps next time. 

Add the herbs and the butter. You don’t need the butter, we just like it. Do not, I repeat, do NOT forget the salt.

Cover and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes.

About 20 minutes in, preheat the oven to 325 Degrees.

Go ahead and slice your bread into ¼ inch slices and spread them out on a baking sheet, drizzled with a bit of olive oil and toast it for about 8 minutes.

Generally we bake this in a casserole dish because we tend to be feeding several people. Plus you can fit more bread over a wider surface area! If you are going to follow suit, just toast the bread in that same dish so you can see how much will actually fit. Or you can go the traditional way and separate them into individual bowls. [This is a great time to make homemade croutons with the extra bread by the way!]

Once the soup has simmered for 40 minutes, divide it up into whatever bowls or dish you are going to bake/serve it in.

Place your toasted bread on the surface of the soup and scatter the cheese (grated, sliced, whatever).  It should be covering everything.  

Traditionally, you would use Swiss cheese. You are again, welcome to do that, but honestly, gruyere is on a whole other level. It’s salty and thick, and just delicious. Whatever you decide to use, make sure you don’t skimp. Buy a good, hard cheese from the fancy section at your local market. It’s the only way and definitely worth the splurge.

Put it in the oven until the cheese is melted and just browning.

Make sure to let it sit for at least five minutes so it can cool and thicken.

C’est tout! You are ready to gorge yourself. And trust us: you will.