Restaurant-Quality French Onion Soup

Jump to Recipe

Soupe à l'oignon! Where did it originate from? Is it really French? The roots began in the births of Ancient Rome that were prepared for the first time over 8,000 years ago.  

The recipe popularized in restaurants across Paris, and it finally took shape in the 18th century. 

There are two stories regarding who created it, the first was when King Louis XV returned from a day of hunting, found his cupboards completely empty except for onions, butter, and champagne. Another was in the kitchen of La Pomme d’Or in Châlons-en-Champagne. This was the hometown of Nicolas Appert, the father of food preservation and inventor of canning, who was working at the hotel one night when the Duke of Lorraine, ex-King of Poland Stanislas Leszczynski, stopped in on his way to the Palace of Versailles to visit his daughter Queen Marie, the wife of Louis XV. 

Nicolas Appert prepared the soup, and the Duke was so mind blown with it he went down to the kitchens just to see it being made and write it down! In Appert’s cookbook, published in 1831, Appert dedicates his recipe to the royal, naming it the onion soup à la Stanislas. 

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Restaurant-Quality French Onion Soup

Yield: 4

Author: Yasmeen's Kitchen Diary

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 H & 10 MTotal time: 1 H & 20 M

Ingredients

• 600 g (about 5-6 medium-sized) onions
• 30 g (2 tbsp) butter
• 30 g (2 tbsp) flour
• 1 liter (4 cups) beef broth
• Bay leaf
• Thyme
• Baguette
• Emmental or Gruyère cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste.

Instructions

1. Cut the onions along the grain, not against it, to ensure it staying in place without it breaking apart while caramelizing.
2. Slice baguettes, brush with a bit of oil and place it in the oven to brown and crisp.
3. In a pot, add butter and toss a handful of onions.
4. Add onions gradually and patiently stir and caramelize – this is the most crucial part of the entire recipe and requires patience, this is the main flavor profile of the soup, so take your time stirring until the onions caramelize and brown nicely. This whole process could take 20-30 minutes.
5. Once caramelized, add 2 tablespoons of flour. The flour prevents the onions from sinking to the bottom of the soup.
6. It’s normal at this stage to see a browned base in your pot, this is what we chefs call “gold” – it’s full of flavor.
7. Deglaze the pot with a bit of beef stock.
8. Once deglazed, add the rest of the cold beef stock and bring to a boil.
9. Once boiling, turn the heat down and simmer for 40 minutes.
10. Skim away any foam that forms at the top of the soup – that foam is the bitterness of the onions.
11. Add bay leaf and thyme.
12. Remove after 40 minutes.
13. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
14. Ladle soup into soup bowls, top with baguette and Gruyère cheese.
15. Place it in the oven and broil until the cheese melts and browns.
16. Bon appétit!

Notes:

To make it gluten-free: Use gluten-free bread.  Use gluten-free flour. A good thickener would be potato flour. Or omit it all-together.  If you omit it, expect the onions to sink to the bottom and the texture of the soup to be light. 

To make it dairy-free: Use lactose-free cheeses or vegan cheeses such as vegan mozzarella To make it meat-free: Use vegetable broth

Nutrition Facts

Calories

497.20

Fat (grams)

17.70

Sat. Fat (grams)

9.73

Carbs (grams)

63.31

Fiber (grams)

4.14

Net carbs

59.17

Sugar (grams)

10.96

Protein (grams)

22.55

Sodium (milligrams)

1750.59

Cholesterol (grams)

45.83

Bon appétit!