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This French onion soup is way better than what I have had at most restaurants. The rich flavor of the broth paired with the gooey cheese is unbeatable!
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I love a good French onion soup, especially in the fall when you can get really good, sweet onions. This French onion soup is way better than what I have had at most restaurants. The rich flavor paired with the gooey cheese and soft bread is just so amazing!
There are no words that can describe how good this French onion soup is. Just as a little added note, when making French onion soup you want to use beef consomme. You will find it adds a good depth of flavor that beef broth alone just can’t provide. You can find beef consomme in the canned soup aisle in your grocery store. It is usually right next to the beef broth.
Easy French Onion Soup Ingredients
Homemade french onion soup is simple to make and has all the flavor. Snuggle up in your home and enjoy a bowl full of this savory blend of beef, onions, and baguette slices with melty cheese in every bite. It is a classic soup that everyone loves!
- Butter – Melt the butter in a pan to cook and crisp the onions. The butter will also be in the pan giving the soup extra flavor.
- Sweet onions – The yellow onion is the best onion and the more traditional onion when making classic French onion soup. The butter starts the caramelization process. When you caramelize the onions it gives the soup that extra flavor!
- Garlic – You can’t get enough garlic! This french soup needs to have a garlic taste and texture in the ingredients.
- Thyme – This has an earthy with some minty flavoring. It blends well with savory dishes.
- Bay leaf – Always a common and fun add in to any soups or stews. Bay leaves can be taken out before serving. It is not good to eat.
- Beef consomme – This is a dark liquid with a variety of rich flavors and a velvety texture to it. It has a gelatin content to it giving it a thicker base.
- Beef broth – Thin and flavorful liquid that is similar to beef consomme.
- Red wine vinegar – A distinctive and tangy flavor that balances out the ingredients for this french onion soup recipe.
- French bread – Bake the french bread or a thick crusty bread like a baguette on a baking sheet in the oven making it crispy. This will be layered in the soup and softened as it is soaked in the broth.
- Cheese mixture – The best cheese layer on top is a combination of provolone, Swiss, and parmesan cheeses. You can also substitute gruyere cheese or mozzarella. Putting it all under the broiler until the cheeses are bubbly creates the desired texture and effect of melty cheese!
- Paprika – Sprinkle a bit of hidden spice into the soup! No one will ever know!
How to Make this Easy French Onion Soup Recipe
This classic homemade French onion soup recipe is an easy make-at-home dinner! Don’t be startled by the ingredients. These ingredients are going to create the best French onion soup! First, sauté onions, simmer the liquid, bake the toast, and layer together with the cheese on top. It makes the best combination and comforting food ever!
- Saute – Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.
- Caramelizing – Stirring often, and cook the onions until they are soft and caramelized. This will take about 30 minutes.
- Simmer – Add consomme, beef broth, and vinegar and simmer for another 30 minutes. At this point, you can also transfer to a crock pot and cook on low heat for several hours.
- Bake – When ready to eat, toast French bread in the broiler until lightly toasted on each side. Remove from broiler, but keep broiler on.
- Layer – Remove and discard bay leaf and thyme from the soup. Ladle soup evenly into oven-safe serving bowls. Place a slice of French bread into each bowl and top with provolone and Swiss cheese.
- Broil – Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and paprika over the top and broil for about 5 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.
Freezing French Onion Soup
French onion soup freezes well, so make an extra batch to keep in the freezer for a day when you just don’t feel like cooking. However, there are a couple of tips to keep in mind when freezing this type of soup:
- Make sure the soup has cooled completely before freezing, so it doesn’t run the risk of growing bacteria.
- Freeze in individual servings or in airtight freezer containers. This makes it easier to thaw and reheat only the amount you need.
- When you’re ready to reheat, remove the soup from the freezer and let it thaw in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. Heat the soup in a soup bowl in the microwave, stirring every thirty seconds or so.
- Keep in mind that the texture of the onions may change after freezing and reheating. They can become softer and less crisp compared to freshly made soup.
- You may need to adjust the seasonings, adding a little more salt and pepper to taste.
Vegan/Vegetarian Options
A vegan French onion soup is still savory, comforting, and full of flavor. It’s a perfect option for those following a vegan lifestyle or looking to enjoy a plant-based version of this classic soup. To make this French onion soup vegetarian or vegan, use a rich vegetable broth with some dry white wine (optional) and top with vegan mozzarella vegan Gruyère.
“My favorite! I absolutely adore soup of all kinds and I especially LOVE this soup! I never have it enough! So delicious! And deceptively easy! The caramelized onions, the rich broth… the perfectly broiled cheese on top. Yum!”
-Betsy
Frequently Asked Questions
Onion soup has several types of onions sliced and added into the soup whereas french onion soup commonly uses yellow onions only in the beef stock.
The classic soup gets its name from France. It was famous in the 18th century and became a famous soup from there on out. During that time, onions were inexpensive and easy to grow. This made them readily available and affordable for everyone to make.
White or yellow onions are always subtle and give a sweet flavor. Yellow onions are the traditional way and are sliced very thin. For an extra step, caramelized onions make them a buttery flavor that is above the rest!
Common flavorings from french onion soup are onion powder, garlic, garlic powder, parsley, chives, Worcestershire sauce, and any others that give it that rich flavoring.
In the Mood for More Soup
If you’re in the middle of fall and winter, soups just seem like the perfect meal. You’ll have plenty of possibilities to try when you check out these soup recipes and more.
How to Make French Onion Soup
French Onion Soup
Video
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter 1 stick
- 4 medium sweet onions
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- ground black pepper to taste
- 31.5 ounces Beef Consomme 3, 10.5 oz cans (found with the canned soups at the store)
- 10.5 ounces Beef Broth
- 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 4 slices French baguette OR 2 c. Parmesan croutons
- 8 ounces Gruyere cheese shredded
- Parmesan cheese to taste
- paprika to taste
Instructions
- Peel and thinly slice the onions.
- Melt butter in a stock pot. Add onions, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until onions are soft and brown (about 30-45 minutes).
- Add consomme, beef broth, and vinegar and simmer for another 30 minutes (at this point you can also transfer to a crock pot and cook on low heat for several hours).
- When ready to eat, toast French baguette slices in the broiler for about 2 minutes turning once, until lightly toasted on each side. Remove from broiler, but keep broiler on.
- Remove and discard bay leaf and thyme from the soup. Ladle soup evenly into 4 oven-safe serving bowls. Place a slice or two of French baguette into each bowl.
- Sprinkle cheese and paprika over the top.
- Broil for about 5 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown and bubbly.
Notes
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- Make sure the soup has cooled completely before freezing, so it doesn’t run the risk of growing bacteria.
-
- Freeze in individual servings or in airtight freezer containers. This makes it easier to thaw and reheat only the amount you need.
-
- When you’re ready to reheat, remove the soup from the freezer and let it thaw in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. Heat the soup in a soup bowl in the microwave, stirring every thirty seconds or so.
-
- Keep in mind that the texture of the onions may change after freezing and reheating. They can become softer and less crisp compared to freshly made soup.
-
- You may need to adjust the seasonings, adding a little more salt and pepper to taste.
Excellent recipe. Thank you! I made as written using two large white onions and two large sweet onions. I used about a tsp and a half better than bouillion put in one of the empty bouillion cans and used my keurig to brew hot water to make 10.5 ox beef bouillion. Last minute decision to make, tried to find ramekins but no one had any so I topped entire pot with the baguette toasts and then the cheese and put entire Dutch oven in oven to broil. It was perfectly delicious and everyone could take however many toasts they wanted. Yum!!!
It’s my very favorite soup ever! Pure comfort food! The cheesy bread always gets me.
My husband absolutely LOVES french onion soup but I had never made it. So I was on the hunt for a recipe and was hoping this was it. It WAS! He absolutely loved it, thank you!
My favorite! I absolutely adore soup of all kinds and I especially LOVE this soup! I never have it enough! So delicious! And deceptively easy! The caramelized onions, the rich broth… the perfectly broiled cheese on top? Yum!
I love french onion soup! I made this last weekend when it was it was dreary, it was a perfect way to warm up. My family loved it too, which is always a plus!
This french onion soup is the perfect fall comfort food!
Yummy! This looks great. My mother in law loves this soup.
Oh my goodness! I absolutely LOVE French Onion soup and always order it. I had no idea it was so simple to make. Thanks for sharing.
Right?? It’s SO easy to make! Let us know how you like it!
This is my favorite kind of soup! I agree that making it with the consomme makes all the difference. Thanks for such a great recipe!!
Can it just be made in the crock pot , or do you have a recipe for the crock pot ??
Yes, this can easily be made in the crock pot 🙂
Do you have any suggestions on how to make a vegetarian version of this soup?
Hmm good question. You could try using vegetable broth but it probably won’t taste quite as good ;/ let us know if you try it and how it turns out!
I made this but it was extremely salty. I don’t have any experience cooking with beef broth or consomme. Afterward I Googled “what is the best beef broth” and the answer is the best broth is when you make it from scratch! But second best option is Better Than Bouillon – a jar of concentrated bouillon paste to which you add boiling water to make beef, chicken, or vegetable broth. Google results said that all canned beef broth is too salty – I had used Campbell’s beef consomme and Swanson’s beef broth. Google also told me that French Onion Soup can be made with chicken broth or plain water, so I bought the low sodium Better Than Bouillon chicken broth jar. I spooned out and strained the onions from my existing soup and discarded the salty beef broth/consomme, then prepped the Better Than Bouillon chicken broth and added my existing cooked onions. The results were much better for me than using the canned beef broth/consomme.
How many people does this serve? I have a family of four (the men usually go in for seconds) and I’m trying to decide if I need to double up on this recipe.
It makes 4 good-sized bowls… if it is your main course doubling-up might not be a bad idea.
My daughter made this and it was sooo good…..now I’m craving more….
If you can get broth from cooking a roast it is extra fantastic. And as crazy as it may sound, adding a few dashes of balsalmic vinegar before dishing it out, the flavors are intensified!
Great idea! Thank you for sharing! Will definitely try that next time I make a roast. YUM!
This recipe looks amazing. I live in an apartment with a low end stove. A lot of recepies I have wanted to make lately say to use broiler but we haven’t had much luck with it and it usually ends with the smoke detector going off. Any ideas on getting around this and would this recipe suffer without that step?
My advice would be just to watch it VERY closely. As soon as it starts to bubble, take it out. You could probably use a kitchen-torch if you have one!
Would like the nutritional breakdown, as I think this might be quite high in sodium, with salt, canned soup and cheese. Sure hope it falls in the acceptable range as it sounds delish.
I don’t have that information but you can plug this information into a source like livestrong.com if you needed to find out!
I love French onion soup and home made would be excellent. I have a question, what consommé do you use? Is it 3 cans of undiluted concentrate or do you dilute as per the directions on the cans?
UNdiluted for sure– don’t follow the directions on the can. We use beef consomme. Hope this helps!
I made this when I cooked in a restaurant but we used only about 2 tbsp of butter.. 1/2 cup it would swim in grease as there is also fat coming off of the cheeses. We also added about 2 cups of bar brand sherry for a large pot so I would think at least 1/4 cup for this size of recipe.
Great recipe easy to follow, turned out perfect thanks
Can I double the recipe
Sure!
I typically just skim the broiled cheese off the top but this I know I would devour!! =)