French Onion Soup (revamped repost)

Back when I was on a member of an online dating website (yes that happened and seriously I suggest it to anyone single who wants to meet new people they wouldn't otherwise) I wrote in my profile to answer the prompt "I am good at  ______" that I was good at making french onion soup.  I subsequently got multiple messages from nearby single men asking details about how to make french onion soup. Now I am sure these were just conversation starters,  but it really must show that people out there are interested in this right? And since it is in fact so, so easy to make a decent french onion soup, it seems like this knowledge needs to be shared.

In case you were wondering how to make a basic french onion soup, and perhaps haven't found any girls on dating websites to address the question to, here is a bit of instruction on how I make it.

I actually posted a french onion soup recipe  on this site in October of 2010. I decided it was time to revamp and update that post with new pictures and some slight revisions, as well as to bring it out from the depths of this site's archives.

I made this french onion soup recently, using a similar method to my original with only a few small changes. The ingredients are simple and inexpensive,  and the outcome is pretty good if I do say so myself.

If you are wondering what changes I made since last posting this recipe, they were mostly based on simplifiying and making the original even easier to make, with fewer ingredients to go out and buy. Things like using dried thyme instead of fresh, cutting out the rosemary, and using only red wine instead of both red and white, in place of the traditional sherry. I also increased the amount of garlic, and reduced the amount of bread, which I chose this time to serve on the side.

Next I photographed it in the natural light from a sunny window, and not on an ugly orange placemat. Big changes, guys. But really, this post needed some attention. The single men of Boston want to know how to make french onion soup, and they don't want to see photographs that look like this:

And here's what you need to know to make the recipe:

Simple French Onion Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 large onions, sliced

1 TBS olive oil

2 tsp dried thyme

3-4 cloves of garlic- minced

3 cups beef or chicken broth

3/4 to 1 cup dry red wine

salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp worcester sauce

Plus:

4 slices of bread- I used challa, but french bread is classic

1 cup of shredded cheese- Greyere and Parmesean, Swiss, or even Cheddar- whichever is your favorite. I found a Cheddar-Greyere blend at Trader Joes that worked well and was inexpensive

Process:

1.Halve and slice each of your onions. Try not to cry too much. Chew on some bread, it will help.

2. Heat your oil in a large pan. Once hot, add the onions.

3. Heat the onions in a covered pot until they begin to caramelize, stirring occasionally. About 20 minutes.

4. Add garlic and thyme. Cook 5 more minutes.

5. Add wine to deglaze pan, then stock (and water if you need more liquid)

6. Add worcester sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.

7. Simmer and allow the liquid to reduce a bit and get delicious. 

8. The End.

except for this part:

MEANWHILE: 

1.Heat the oven to 400. 

2. On a baking sheet lay out your slices of bread, topped liberally with cheese. 

3.Bake until the cheese is bubbly. 

4.Serve alongside the soup. 

PS- I hereby promise to try really hard to make my next cooking post not be soup related. Sorry.