The Painted Apron

Recipe Box, French Onion Soup with Gruyere & Bacon Croutons

Posted by the Painted Apron on November 26, 2012 · 12 Comments 

After a long busy weekend, Thanksgiving parties 3 nights in a row, and then the Iron Bowl on Saturday, HH & I were craving something light and simple.  We decided to curl up in front of the TV last night with a steaming bowl of homemade soup.  Onion soup is one of those universal recipes that everyone seems to have a version of, but my secret is the easy trick I use to make it and the fancy way I like to serve it.

A little effort in presentation elevates a ho-hum soup & sandwich meal into FRENCH ONION SOUP with GRUYERE & BACON CROUTONS! Sounds better, yes?

These are the soup ingredients, basically onions, beef broth, butter and spices

While I was prepping food for the Iron Bowl party Saturday, I sliced the onions and tossed them in a large skillet on medium low with some butter and Olive oil, and let them slowly cook down to a wonderful caramelized onion pan full of flavor.  This is a great thing to cook while you’re in the kitchen anyway, they just need an occasional stir…

When they were nice and caramelized I added them to my sprayed slow cooker removable cooking pot with the rest of the ingredients, put the lid on and stuck it in the fridge.  That’s it!   Yesterday afternoon I pulled it out and put the soup in the cooker and set it on low for about 4 hours and the soup was hot and delicious.

I cooked the bacon Saturday too, I just put a pan full of strips in the oven on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and baked it for about 20-25 minutes at 350 until nice and crispy.  When the bacon is done, drain it well on paper towels, then wrap in a fresh paper towel and put in a ziplock baggie and tuck away in the fridge.  This is a great way to have bacon at the ready.  It will keep in your fridge for several days and you can use it for sandwiches, salads, in casseroles or toppings.

At dinner time all I had to do is assemble the sandwiches, and bake them until hot and toasty and dinner was ready!

Of course you can serve them the traditional way, or you can top your soup with a thick cheese topped toast, but I really don’t like a big gloppy hunk of bread in my onion soup, it’s too hard to eat!  So, I like to compromise by serving skewers of cheese and bread that can be dunked and nibbled!

I hope you enjoyed  your Sunday, and rest up, the holidays are just beginning!

Here’s the recipe:

FRENCH ONION SOUP

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Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 4 hours hrs

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, French

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 4 medium onions thinly sliced
• 4 T butter
• 2 T flour
• 3 healthy dashes garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 2 tsp sugar
• 4 c DOUBLE strength beef broth use bouillon cubes to make it rather than buying the canned broth, it won’t be rich enough
• 1 c sherry
• 1/2 c Chardonnay or any white wine
• 2 dashes Worcestershire
• dashes allspice white pepper

Instructions

 

• Saute onions in butter over medium heat til golden 20-30 min.
• Lower heat and add flour, garlic, mustard, and sugar, stirring well 1-3 min. until mixture resembles a roux. Transfer onions to slow cooker.
• Add liquids and remaining spices and cover. Refrigerate overnight. Cook on low heat for 4 hours and top with croutons or toasted bread and cheese. Makes 4-5 servings

Notes

Serve with Bacon & Gruyere Croutons

or Pepperidge farm thin white bread toasted swiss cheese sandwich triangles

Keyword French onion soup, onion soup, slow cooker soup

GRUYERE BACON CROUTONS

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Ingredients

  

• fresh crusty poppy seed water rolls from the bakery split and toasted
• thick slices of Gruyere cheese
• cooked bacon strips.

Instructions

 

• fill rolls with cheese and bacon.
• wrap the sandwiches in foil and put them in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes
• cut them in 1/4s and put them on wooden skewers to serve over soup

Notes

A grilled cheese sandwich would be pretty awesome too…on some nice crusty sour dough…

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