I stumbled upon this recipe and decided to give it a try. I altered the recipe according to previous reviewers. I used 1/2 cup butter. I added about 2 tsp of white sugar. I used three cups of sliced onions. Mostly yellow cooking onions and one red onion. I've read that using Vidalia onions are the best because they are sweet, so you might be able to omit the sugar if you use them. I cooked the onions on medium heat in the butter until they sweated down and were carmelized. That took a while but the taste it worth it. I used about 2 TBS of flour. Then I used 4 cans of beef broth, 1/2 cup wine, 1 TBS of worcestire sauce, some fresh thyme (the whole sprig's thrown in), 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper. I left that boil and then simmered on low for 20 minutes. At first it tasted like red wine but after simmering it had great flavor. Thanks so much for this recipe. I will be making this one again.
I was looking everywhere for this recipe...here it is! I have made all different kinds of onion soup and this is by far the best. I really like the tradition of swiss cheese and red wine added...this is a classic recipe! My family came over and half of them HATE onions. They actually ate this soup and loved it. One thing I would say is always add yellow onions. They have the most flavor.
A good basic starting recipe. I changed it quite a bit... used butter instead of margarine, added about 2 tsp. of thyme at the end, and used 1/4 cup of sherry and 1/4 cup of port in place of the wine, as well as provolone instead of swiss (the swiss would have been better, I think, or gruyere). Also added 3 cloves of thinly sliced elephant garlic about 1/2 way through cooking the onions. The trick is to cook the onions sloooowly, on a med/ med-low heat. The soup was fantastic, not too salty like many I have had before, and was delicious with a fresh green salad.
Very good and easy. I think I know why some reviewers found this bland- most brands of canned beef broth are not meant to be diluted with water. (I know the ones in my pantry aren't). If you use regular canned beef broth instead of condensed broth- skip the water and use 4 cans of beef broth instead of 2! I caught myself just in time- the soup was delicious!
I love onion soup and this recipe is great! I sauteed the onions very slowly on a lower temperature for optimum flavor and added a shake of worcestershire sauce for some added complexity like other reviewers have suggested. I didn't have small oven proof bowls so I just toasted some bread and topped with the cheese and broiled in my toaster oven. I ladled the soup into bowls and floated the toast on top. YUM!
All I can say is WOW! You made me the hero of the dinner table today! Thanks for posting such a delectable recipe. I made the following changes: I used four Vidalia onions and three cloves of fresh pressed garlic.I substituted 3 cans of beef consume for the 2 cans of broth and added 2 beef bullion cubes to 2 cups of water. I also added a tablespoon of worchestershire as suggested here. I used one slice of Alpine Lace Reduced Fat and one slice low fat Mozzerella....I made the overlap the outside of the bowl and added a shake of paprika before placing under the broiler.....it was gorgeous and delicious and my husband and son couldn't stop raving about it. By the way I didn't have the small soup crocks so this morning I bought half a dozen at Goodwill for 10 bucks!! Thanks again Allison for such a great recipe! It will be cherished by my family for years to come!!
Oh boy, am I ever in love with this onion soup! I'm generally not a big fan of onion soup, but my boyfriend is, so after reading the other recipes, I tried this one, and we are so glad I did! I did make a couple of changes though. I added a LOT more onions and gently browned them until they were very golden. All in all, that took about an hour, but the enhanced onion flavor is well worth the effort. I only used beef broth, no water, and to up the beef flavor even more, I used a couple of teaspoons of a product called Better Than Boullion. Finally, because I don't like the flavor of red wine in soup, I swapped it out for a slash of cognac, but be careful as the cognac can too easily overpower everything else. Swiss cheese is the absolute best choice here. We love this soup so much that we can't even considering ordering it when we're out. We just know it won't be as good!
I'm sorry to say this but this was the first recipe I got from this web-site that I didn't like. First of all it had no flavor except for the wine. So I added a tsp of salt and a beef boullion cube and that improved it greatly. Secondly there was entirely too much onion and not enough broth. The quantities need to be adjusted. If those adjustments are made I would give this recipe 4 stars but as it stands it only deserves 2.
I thought this recipie was excellent although I modified it a tad bit. I divided the amount of wine by one half and instead of using the cans of broth I used 4 beef boullion cubes for flavoring instead. My advice is to cut the baguette in half and from there slice it into slices one centimeter thick. Toast these as directed in the oven and line the whole bottom of the soup bowls with the slices. Everything else in the recipie is fine. I cooked the soup with my modifications added into the recipie for my dad who is from Paris and he said it was one of the best French Onion Soup he had ever tasted!
