Friday, February 24, 2012

Cheese Topped Onion Soup


This delicious soup was our pick for French Fridays with Dorie this week. I love almost all veggies except for onions (it is a texture thing, I enjoy the flavor), but picky husband adores French Onion Soup so I decided to give this one a go for him and invite my mom, another French Onion Soup fan over for dinner. Years ago for Christmas I even bought her the same Emile Henry onion soup bowls that are pictured in Dorie's Around My French Table book, with the little lion heads on the side.


Look at that huge pot full of Spanish onions!


I had a chance to try out a new bread recipe and it was amazing! Crusty and chewy and soft and tender inside, just perfect for topping this soup. I will be making these baguettes all the time, they were such a huge hit with the entire family.


Look at how much those onions cooked down. I felt they were caramelised enough, I probably could have gotten them a little darker, but after tending to them for at least an hour and fifteen minutes to get them to this shade, I was ready to continue on in the recipe and get this soup a goin'. My only change to the recipe was to use vegetable broth instead of the chicken.


Lovely to have an excuse to buy one of my favorite cheeses, mmm, gruyere...so delicious!


Excuse the not so great photos, I was kind of in a rush to get these into the oven since everyone was hungry for dinner. I toasted little rounds of the baguette before putting them on the soup and covering them with cheese.


And there you have it, one absolutely luscious bowl of French Onion Soup. It was amazing. Even though I do not like the texture of onions, I thoroughly enjoyed the toasty cheesy top and broth. The best part was that picky husband absolutely loved this as well. The kids had something else for dinner, they had no interested in trying the onion soup. I loved the touch of brandy in the bowl, the white wine in the soup and the caramelized onions came together so perfectly. My mom thought the soup was great too, whew! I probably could have broiled the tops of the soup a touch longer, but I was nervous about broiling these bowls, they were "oven proof" but did not indicate if they were broiler safe so I was cautious. Even with pale tops, this was one delicious bowl of soup :)


12 comments:

Dawn @ Words Of Deliciousness said...

My husband and I love French onion soup, so this would be the perfect soup recipe for us. Your bread looks lovely!

Cher Rockwell said...

Oh - everything looks so good. I am sure the homemade baguettes were the piece d' resistance.

Kris' Kitchen said...

I'm amazed that you made this soup when you don't enjoy onions. Nice to please other family members now and then. I wanted to leave my cheese-toast-topped-soup under the broiler longer to get some color, but the cheese was just melting down over the bread into the soup...it was all delicious.

Unknown said...

I wish I had made my bread; yours looked delicious!!

Nana said...

My hubby loves onion soup and ate it every time
he saw it on a menu in France. He truly loved this
recipe and there were no complaints. I love most onions,
but not onion soup. Your final dish looks wonderfully
delicious.

Mary Hirsch said...

I love your bowls. Which baguette recipe did you try? Loved that you baked your own baguette for this. As if two hours of caramelizing onions after slicing and dicing isn't enough. Yeah, FOS is not a kid's meal. Nice Mom to make another.

Ei said...

I want homemade baguettes! I didn't have time to make a loaf of bread, so I had to buy some "fresh sourdough" (ha--yeah right) from the supermarket. It works in a pinch, but fresh bread is always better.

Unknown said...

Glad it was a hit at your house! How can anything served with home baked baguettes not be wonderful?

Kathleen said...

Hi! Looks yummy! I share your interests but don't have the time these days to do as much as I'd like to in the kitchen. That's why I am glad to have found Dorie and this blog.
-Kathleen

Christy said...

Mmmm. We love French Onion Soup, it was just too hot this week to make it. Something about summer weather and hot, hearty soups that aren't matching. Looks like a delicious meal!

pinkstripes said...

Your soup looks really good. And the bread! Yum.

franklyentertaining said...

I didn't serve this to my kids either. I didn't need the tears over burnt tongues, or the mess that results every single time they eat soup!!

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