The Covered Dish – French Onion Soup

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French Onion Soup, December 28, 2015
The Covered Dish
Debbie Dance Uhrig

As I pen this New Year’s Column I would ‘guess’ we are close to 8-9 inches of rain, in a 48 hour period, here in the Ozark Mountains. This morning we received around 5 inches from Saturday night into Sunday morning. It has poured ‘buckets’ the entire day. I came home from work a drenched individual. I guess you can figure out what supper is going to be! Soup, with a capitol ‘S’. The other down side is the temperature has been dropping all day and we are sitting at 35 degrees at 4pm. Morning could be an interesting affair!

Today I’m featuring a French Onion Soup, but I’m making a crab stew for my family. In the past I’ve run this soup in the column, but this time I want to recommend a few ‘healthier’ steps for this recipe. First, I’m on a real mission to cease using canned soups because of the sodium they bring into dishes. This recipe calls for undiluted beef broth. If I was serious about making this onion soup I would prepare a pot roast earlier in the week. You’re going to need a total of around 62 ounces of good broth. Then if you need to add canned beef broth reach for the lowest sodium possible.

I’d also like to suggest adding something extra to the cooking of the onions. How about a little reduction with a dry red wine or a good dry sherry? How much would I use? Probably about a cup based upon the beef stock. You’re going to remove the alcohol content in the reduction.

Whether you leave the onions in long slivers or chop them is a personal choice. I still like the slivered onion, but if it was being served at a serious ‘sit-down’ dinner I would consider chopping the onions smaller.

The soup is not complete without the chunk of bread down in the center. Along with a serious covering of cheese on the top of the bread, sealing the soup. The recipe suggests mozzarella and parmesan cheese. I would also give consideration to natural Swiss on the top of the soup.

I’ve never put any other vegetables with the onions, but my taste buds would love a bit of mushroom thrown into the soup. If this is going with a dinner party I would place the bread in a ‘small’ bowl, pour the soup in, place the cheese on top and run it under the broiler until bubbly and slightly brown. I didn’t have lunch and this is sounding awfully yummy right now.

I hope your New Year is filled with promises for an exciting 2016. I have a list forming myself. It’s going to take some serious commitments for me to see them come into fruition. Simply yours, The Covered Dish. www.thecovereddish.com

Easy French Onion Soup
6 large onions, chopped in slivers
1/2 cup butter
6 cans (10.5 oz. each) beef broth, undiluted
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 bay leaves
10 slices toasted French bread
Shredded Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheese

Cook onions in butter until tender. Add wine or sherry if desired and reduce. Place onion mixture in slow cooker and add everything except for the bread and cheese. Cook on low 5-7 hours discard the bay leaves. Place the toasted bread in a bowl, pour soup over and top with cheese. Consider broiling quickly to melt the cheese nicely.

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