Frugal Organic Girl

When you think of french onion soup do you think of something long and complicated? Ha nothing could be further from the truth. French onion soup is perhapes in my opinion one of THE easiest soup to make, in fact SO easy that I recommend any beginner cook to make it.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp butter, grass fed is best*
• 1 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
• 4 leaks, cut into half rounds, washed really really well. **
• 3 red onions cut into half rounds
• 4 yellow onions, cut into half rounds
• 2 quarts beef broth + 2 tbsp organic reduced sodium better than boullion paste ( you can find it at Costco)
• 3/4 cup white wine (pino grecio, etc- we used Charles Shaw Chardonnay 2008)
• 1-2 tbsp dried thyme, crushed into the soup
• Your choice of bread, a day or two old stale works best
• 1/8-1/4 cup grated cheese per person.

Method:

1. Using an extra large pot 6-8 quarts, heat over meduim high flame, add grass fed butter, evoo and swirl around pan so that pan is evenly coated and fat is simmering slightly in the pan, but not smoking. Butter should be just bearly light brown.
2. Add onions into pot, at first it will look like A LOT of onions and it is about 9+ cups onions, but onions are mostly water so they will eventually cook down to almost 1/3 to 1/4th their original volume. Once you are able to get all the onions in the pot at once, stir occasionally, cover and let cook for 10 minutes, come back and stir again, a lot of water will be coming out of onions. Keep cooking for another 10-20 minutes until all the onions have wilted, shrunk and there is no liquid left in the pan.
3. The onions in the pot should be light brown at this point. DO NOT move from the stove at this point. Just keep watching and stirring. Try not to let the onions stick to the pan too much. Keep stiring and browning until it reaches a deep dark brown but not burnt!
4. Preheat your broiler so that you can melt the cheese.
5. Once the onions are  a deep brown, add the broth, boullion paste, wine, dried thyme bring to a boil until it just breaks the surface. And reduce to a simmer for about 20 min until the soup is reduced by 1/3. Now taste and season with salt and pepper or add more stock if you want a slightly thinner soup. Not too thin, because you want a thick and hearty soup! Once the soup is to your taste add to your bowl.
6. Spoon into oven safe bowls, top with bread, cheese, broil until melted and golden brown. Serve with  a large green salad.

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