November 14, 2019

One Pot French Onion Soup

Caramelized onions in a savory beef broth, topped with toasted French bread and melted gruyere cheese, cooked in a large pot. This One Pot French Onion Soup makes for a filling, delicious meal!

Grocery Pickup

A year or two ago my grocery store started a pickup option that has now become almost standard at larger chains. It was life changing. I had to go into the grocery store recently and I heard a man telling his wife that the people who used pickup were lazy. I wanted to put my 2 and 4 year olds in his cart for the rest of his shopping trip, and then ask him what he thought about pickup. I feel confident by the end of the trip he’d be telling everyone how wonderful it is to be able to just pick up groceries and go.

Grocery pickup is not perfect, although the pros absolutely outweigh the few cons. Every once in a while, I don’t understand or care for a proposed substitute item when what I order is unavailable. For example, recently I ordered four cans of tuna, and they substituted four lime green beach towels. I was a little confused.

And sometimes I make a mistake ordering. For example, a few weeks ago, I meant to order three sweet onions, and accidentally ordered three bags of sweet onions. Which leads us to this recipe.

A Plethora of Onions

When I got home and realized I had somewhere along the lines of 30 onions, I did two things. First, I told my high school bestie who hates onions. Second, I started thinking of ways to use them.

As the weather was starting to get cold and my family loves soup, it was a given that I needed to make the best of the situation with some French onion soup.

I considered making traditional individual baked servings, but then thought about my two children with clay crocks and decided that was not what I wanted. They have a lot of wiggles, and I find that plastic bowls are therefore safer for everyone.

One Pot French Onion Soup

I decided that there was no reason I couldn’t make a completed French onion soup in a large pot. The result was exactly what I wanted! Here are a few tips for when you make this soup:

Leftover French Onion Soup

If you do not think that you will eat this whole pot in one sitting, only top it with half of the bread and cheese. If you don’t use all of the bread and cheese the day you serve it, throw away the bread and cheese on top before storing the soup.

When you’re ready for leftovers you can reheat the soup with the remaining fresh bread and cheese. The bread and cheese do not store well in the soup.

Onions

When you put the onions in the pot, you’re going to think “this is way too many onions.” Don’t worry, they cook down significantly.

I recommend sweet onions as they have such a lovely, sweet taste.

Gruyere Cheese

Gruyere melts well and tastes fabulous in this soup. However, if you’re unable to find Gruyere, you could use Swiss cheese in its place. Swiss has a bit of a stronger taste, but melts well.

This One Pot French Onion Soup recipe is ideal if you don’t have individual oven safe bowls, or prefer to serve your soup in plastic bowls.

One Pot French Onion Soup

Caramelized onions in a savory beef broth, topped with toasted French bread and melted gruyere cheese, cooked in a large pot. This One Pot French Onion Soup makes for a filling, delicious meal!

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Course: Soup

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 2 30

Servings: servings

Calories: 337

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Ingredients

3 pounds sweet onions
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper plus more to taste
2 cloves fresh minced garlic
1/4 cup red wine
8 cups beef broth
3 bay leaves
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 French baguette cut into slices that are about 1/2 thick
6 ounces gruyere cheese shredded

Instructions

Cut onions into quarters, and then cut into long, thin slices.
Heat olive oil and butter in a 5-7 quart dutch oven over medium heat, until butter is melted. Add onions and cover dutch oven with lid. Cook covered for 15 minutes.
Remove lid and stir in sugar, salt, and pepper. Continue cooking, uncovered, while stirring occasionally, until onions are well browned. This will take about 50-60 minutes.
Add garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds.
Pour in red wine and cook until smell of alcohol is gone.
Stir in beef broth, bay leaves, thyme, and rosemary. Add salt and pepper to taste (for my tastes, I added 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, this may vary depending on preferences and brand of beef broth used).
Bring soup to a gentle simmer, reduce heat, then cover. Let simmer, covered, for 60 minutes.
While soup is simmering, toast bread.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place toasted bread on top of soup. Then sprinkle with gruyere cheese. Place in oven and let cook until cheese is melted and slightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Notes

If you are planning on having soup for leftovers, do not place all of the bread or cheese on the soup. Save some to use when you reheat the soup as the bread does not save well in the soup.