French Onion Soup
Slow-caramelized onions, beef broth and gruyère-blanketed toast.
Maui's an app that plans a whole week of dinners like this one. See how it works ↓
Don't rush the onion caramelization - that 40-50 min is the entire flavor of the soup. If you crank the heat, you get bitter scorched bits and no jammy sweetness. Put on a podcast and stir.
Ingredients
Everything below makes 4 servings.
- 3 lbyellow onionshalved and thinly sliced root-to-tip
- 4 tbspunsalted butter
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 3garlic clovesminced
- 2 tbspall-purpose flour
- ½ cupdry white wine
- 6 cupsbeef stock
- 4 sprigsfresh thyme
- 1bay leaf
- 8baguette slicescut 1/2-inch thick on a slight angle
- 2 cupsgrated gruyèrefreshly grated
- 1½ tspkosher salt
- ½ tspfreshly ground black pepper
In the app these rescale to however many people you're feeding.
Nutrition
Per serving, as written.
- 660calories
- 22gprotein
- 60gcarbs
- 36gfat
Swaps move these numbers. A different protein or base changes them.
Instructions
Knife work first, then the stove. Nothing below asks you to chop while something burns.
- Halve onions root-to-tip, peel, then slice thinly with the grain. You want long ribbons, not half-moon chunks.
- Mince garlic. Grate the gruyère (bagged pre-shredded is anti-caking, melts grainier - grate from the block).
- Slice the baguette 1/2-inch thick on the diagonal.
Start the onions
Melt butter with olive oil in the dutch oven over medium heat. Add all the onions and 0.5 tsp salt. Stir to coat. Cover and let them sweat 10 min - they'll release a ton of water.
10 min · hands onCaramelize
Uncover, reduce to medium-low. Now the work: stir every 5 min for 40-50 min until onions are deep mahogany brown, jammy, and reduced to about 1/3 their original volume. If they start to stick, add a splash of water and scrape. The fond on the bottom is gold.
45 min · hands offBuild the broth
Stir in minced garlic, cook 30 sec. Sprinkle in flour and stir 1 min to cook the raw taste out. Pour in white wine, scraping the bottom - let it bubble until almost dry, about 2 min.
4 min · hands onSimmer
Pour in beef stock. Add thyme, bay leaf, remaining salt, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and gentle-simmer uncovered 20 min so flavors meld and the broth tightens slightly.
20 min · hands offToast bread
While soup simmers: arrange baguette slices on a baking sheet. Toast at 400F for 6-8 min until dry and golden - they need to be sturdy enough to hold cheese without dissolving.
7 min · hands offCrown and broil
Discard thyme and bay. Ladle soup into 4 oven-safe bowls. Float toasts on each, then bury under a generous mountain of gruyère. Broil 3-4 min until cheese is melted, blistered, and bubbling. Watch - it goes from gold to charred in 30 sec.
4 min · hands onServe
Carry hot bowls to the table on the baking sheet (they're molten). Warn everyone the cheese stretches forever. Eat immediately.
1 min · hands onMake it yours
Every swap here is one Maui already knows how to make, including what it does to the timing.
Simple butter lettuce and lemon vinaigrette while soup simmers. Adds about 5 minutes.
Comté is the same cheese family - sub 1:1.
Cornstarch works equally well, 1:1.
What keeps
Caramelized-onion broth keeps 5 days and freezes 2 months. The bread and cheese top has to be assembled fresh per bowl - soggy day-old broiled cheese is not a thing.
Meet Maui,
the three-legged cat
who plans your dinner.
Think of her as a sous chef for your whole table. She plans dinner everyone will look forward to - built around your schedule and working in everyone's taste and dietary restrictions. That's the mental load of dinner, off your plate.
Join The WaitlistCurrently in closed beta on iPhone.
