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Souper Bowl Sunday ['11] ~ Week 8

October 31, 2011 by 1 Comment

This weekend was sort of crazy weather-wise. When I went out to get my coffee on Saturday morning, I was walking through a lot of slush and it was sleeting. Winter has come a little early this year, and I’ll have to say I’m not ready for it yet. I love Fall, and I feel like Fall gets shorter every year. And that’s a bummer. Because I feel like it’s either 110 degrees or 10 degrees! And my perfect temperature is 60-65 degrees. I guess I need to move, lol! Here in the city we didn’t really get any snow, but friends & family in the suburbs got upward of 6 inches.

French Onion Soup is one of my favorite comfort foods. It’s the perfect soup to warm you up on a cold day. I wanted to try a different type of Onions Soup, so I came up with a Four Onion Soup. I added a few new flavors in there, and I was pretty happy with how it came out.

  • 2 medium Red Onions, sliced
  • 2 medium Sweet Onions, sliced
  • 4 Shallots, sliced
  • 3 Leeks,  cut into chunks
  • 4 Garlic cloves, whole
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 stick of Butter
  • 3 tablespoons Corn Starch
  • 32 oz + 4 oz Beef Broth
  • 2 tablespoons Brandy
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
  • 1 teaspoon (or add at the end to taste) salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • Bread Cubes, toasted
  • Gruyere Cheese
  • Sharp Provolone

Chop up your Leeks, Red Onions, Sweet Onions and Shallots.


I love to caramelize my onions in the crock pot. I love to do it low and slow. I feel like they really get a chance to caramelize and the flavor is exceptional. I usually put the onions in the crock pot the night before I need them. I put a stick of butter in a crock pot and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Add the onions and the garlic cloves.

Let it go! I stir occasionally so that it doesn’t burn. Just make sure that your crock pot isn’t too big, otherwise it will burn. I let them cook down and caramelize until they are a nice mahogany color. From start to finish, they are probably in the crock pot for about twenty hours or so. You can cook yours as long as you’d like though. You can prepare them stove top if that is your preference.

Pour 32 oz of Beef Broth into a Dutch Oven. Bring to a boil. Mix the corn starch with the 4 oz of Beef Broth and add it into the other Broth. It will thicken. Once it’s thickened, add in the caramelized onions and all of their juices. Add in the brandy,  salt, pepper and thyme.

I let it cook (on low) for a little while to let all of the flavors marry. It’s your decision how long you let it go. I probably let mine go for about an hour, but that’s definitely not necessary.

When you’re ready to eat, ladle some of the soup into a crock.

Sprinkle some grated Gruyere Cheese over the soup.


Add in your toasted bread cubes.

Top with some good Sharp Provolone cheese. I love to use the slices.

Throw under the broiler for about 4 minutes or until bubbly!

I was very happy with how this came out. I really liked the flavors that the different onions brought to the soup. In the past I’ve always just used sweet onions, but I really love the four different onions together. This soup definitely warmed me up. And who doesn’t love all of that ooey gooey cheese?!

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Souper Bowl Sunday – Week 3

November 15, 2010 by 3 Comments

This week’s soup was French Onion Soup. This is one of my favorite soups. I’ve tried many French Onion Soup recipes, but came up with this one because I wanted more flavor, and I didn’t want to have to stand around all day caramelizing the onions. This recipe features caramelized onions done in the crock pot overnight. Yes, the crock pot!  It makes life so much easier! :)   

So depending on the size of your crock pot, you may need to adjust the amounts – more or less onions, etc. I do not suggest using a large crock pot. If it’s too large, the onions will just burn. I usually use a 1 1/2 quart crock pot, but this time I used a 3 quart crock pot. I definitely prefer the 1 1/2 quart one. If using the smallest one, you may only need the 3 large vidalia onions. You be the judge. My rule of thumb is to fill the crock pot all the way to the top with the onions. They will definitely cook down.

For our soup on Sunday night, I put the onions in the crock pot Saturday night around 8:30pm.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 large vidalia onions, sliced
  • 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 6 cups beef broth -  I prefer to use Penzeys Beef Soup base and seasoning
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
  • 4 Tablespoons corn starch mixed with some water
  • Salt & Pepper (to taste)
  • Bread, cut into cubes
  • Cheese – Gruyere, Provolone or whatever kind you’d like to use

INSTRUCTIONS:

Set your crock pot to the low setting. Place a stick of butter in the bottom of your crock pot. Put all of the sliced onions on top of the butter, making sure that they go all the way to the top of the crock pot. After they cook for a little while they will shrink down. Stir the onions and the butter together so that all of the onions are coated with the butter. I let them cook overnight. I stir them whenever I get a chance (before bed, when I wake up in the morning, etc).

When you wake up in the morning, they should have changed in color. As they cook throughout the morning/afternoon they will reach a nice mahogany color.

Midway through the afternoon I start to add my beef broth and the thyme.  I usually bump the crock pot setting to high at this point. I let the broth, thyme and caramelize onions cook together. About an hour and a half before you’re ready to serve the soup, add in your corn starch/water mixture. This is to thicken the soup. Continue to cook until it is thickened how you like it. Feel free to add more corn starch if it’s not thick enough for you.

Ladel the soup into an onion soup crock, put the bread cubes in, and top with some cheese. Place under the broiler until the cheese stars to brown and is hot and bubbly.

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