French Onion Soup

Ok Readers, I am SO sorry I haven't been keeping up with posting recipes. My life has been chaotic lately, but tonight I have time. =)

I made this recipe last week. Yum. All I can say is yum.

I appreciate a good bowl of French Onion Soup. As simple as it looks, it has such a rich, robust flavor. Leftovers keep well, and it can be transformed into an easy side dish (as I will show later).

This was a spin on a Tyler Florence recipe. Even though cut in half, this made enough for both of us + leftovers.

(As pictured, this soup has mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, and couscous in it. Aaron doesn't like runny, brothy soups, so I added literally 1/2 c. of couscous to the entire dish and it kept multiplying. I love couscous.)

Ingredients in order of use:

1/4 c. butter

2 large vidallia onions, julienned 

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

2 fresh thyme sprigs

sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 c. red wine (see wine tip below)

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1 qt. beef broth

Toppings of your choice: baguette, cheese, couscous, croutons, etc.

First, melt butter, then add onions and cook until almost caramelized. Add garlic and bay leaf, continue to cook, stirring constantly so garlic doesn't burn (maybe 8 min total for this step):

 

Red wine tip: this is a great way to control the sweetness or boldness of the dish. I am not a wine connoisseur by any means and I really hate wine to drink (except sparkling moscato- mmm). But for this dish, I used Marsala wine. It has a sweet, plummy flavor. The bottle I got was $3.99 at Kroger. I am certain it will be in our fridge for a while.

Add wine and thyme and continue to cook until wine is reduced by half.

Once the wine has reduced, sprinkle the onions with flour, stir to avoid clumps, and cook another minute or so. Finally, add beef stock.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

At this point, remove herbs:

Taste test here and see how much pepper or salt it needs.

I added 1/2 c. of couscous to that whole thing and it turned into this:

Unexpected, but nice.

I also made roasted asparagus. Easy enough! Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over asparagus. Sprinkle with sea salt & fresh pepper. Roast about 10-15 minutes until desired texture. I like mine with a bite to it.

Final dish:

 I hope you give it a try! It's especially great for cold evenings or evenings when everyone gets home at a different time. Just keep the pot warm on the stove. Enjoy!