French Onion Soup

2kg onions (4 large onions will do)

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme

1.5 litres of vegetable stock

1 healthy glass of white wine

1 stick of french bread, cut into slices

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic, peeled but left whole

4 slices of gruyere (same width & length as the slices of bread)

Knob of unsalted butter (about 20g)

1 heaped dessert spoon of plain flour

Salt

Pepper

preparation 10 mins • you cook for 15 mins • total time 1hr 10 mins

Serves 4

Watch a 30 second preview of my cook-along video below

If you cannot view the video below, click here to download QuickTime from Apple's website.

This is a soup that is big on flavour. Onions when cooked slowly will develop the most incredible sweet taste - hard to imagine when they're making your eyes water whilst chopping! With the garlic infused crouton and the bubbling gruyere cheese, this is a great meal in a bowl! French onion soup is a little bit special - perfect to serve to guests!

One large saucepan

Spoon to stir

Before you start, slice the onions and have them on a plate next to the hob. Have your large pan on the hob and the other ingredients waiting patiently on your work surface. Now click here!

Put your large pan on a high heat and add in the butter & a teaspoon of oil. Swirl it around the pan and when melted, add in your onions. Stir gently to get coated with the butter. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes stir well and turn the heat down to low and cook for a further 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

By now the onions should have reduced in size so add in your thyme, sugar & white wine vinegar. Turn the heat up to high and cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. After 10 minutes turn the heat down to low, add in a heaped dessert spoon of plain flour and stir thoroughly. Cook for 1 minute and then add in the white wine. Turn the heat back up high and then add your stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Preheat your grill to high, remove the soup from the heat. Pop the bread under your grill until lightly toasted on both sides. Whilst the bread is toasting give your soup a generous pinch of salt & pepper and stir.. Once the bread is toasted, remove from the grill and rub the garlic clove all over the hot toasted bread. Ladle some soup into the bowl and then carefully place the crouton on top. Lastly, carefully place a slice of cheese onto the bread then grill until the cheese is nice and bubbling. Be careful when you remove from the grill as the cheese will be very hot.

I hope that you enjoy it.

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