French Onion Soup, a vegetarian recipe

Name: French Onion Soup
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 1 kg yellow onions; 50 g butter; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp sugar; 1 tbsp plain flour; 150 ml dry white wine; 1 litre vegetable stock; 2 bay leaves; 8 slices stale baguette; 150 g grated gruyère; Salt and pepper

Method

Slice the onions into thin half-moons, as evenly as you can manage.
Melt the butter with the oil in a large casserole, add the onions and sugar, and sweat them covered over low heat for 10 minutes.
Uncover and caramelise for 40 minutes over medium-low heat, scraping the base every five minutes, until the onions are a deep mahogany brown.
Sprinkle over the flour, stir for 2 minutes, then deglaze with the white wine, scraping up everything stuck to the pan.
Pour in the stock, add the bay leaves, season, and simmer covered for 20 minutes.
Ladle into ovenproof bowls, top with toasted bread and gruyère, and grill for 5 minutes until the cheese bubbles and browns.

There is no shortcut to the caramelisation: those fifty minutes of onions are the whole recipe. A properly browned base, deglazed with wine, is what separates a great soup from a bland one.

The techniques this recipe uses

Sweat the aromatics
Medium heat, no browning: the onion should turn translucent and sweet, not toasted.

Frequently asked questions

Can I speed up caramelising the onions?

There is no shortcut. Turning the heat up scorches the surface before the onions have released and concentrated their sugars, and the soup stays bland. Allow 10 minutes covered to sweat them, then 40 minutes uncovered over medium-low heat, scraping the base every five minutes.

How do I make a vegan version?

Swap the 50 g of butter for extra olive oil, which changes nothing about the caramelising, and the gruyère for a plant-based cheese that melts under the grill. The stock in the recipe is already vegetable stock.

The bottom of the pot keeps catching. Is that a problem?

Those brown sticky deposits are exactly what you want: they are the onions' caramelised sugars. Scrape them up regularly so they do not burn, then deglaze with the white wine, scraping the whole base clean. That is where the soup's flavour comes from.

French Onion Soup

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

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