Onions cooked slowly until deep brown, simmered in broth with white wine, then topped with toasted baguette and cheese and grilled until bubbling. The old Paris market soup, made with yellow onions, two cartons of broth and Swiss Gruyère.
I don't put cognac in my onion soup, and I don't miss it. The onions, the white wine and the broth give it all the depth it needs, and a splash of spirits only pulls the taste away from the sweet, slow-cooked onions.
The thing to watch in Canada is the broth. Carton beef broth here is salty and tastes a bit flat once it reduces, so my pick is half beef and half no-salt-added chicken broth, salted only after the broth has simmered and you've tasted it. The rest is easy here: yellow onions, a dry white wine and a baguette you let go a day old.
French onion soup is mostly patience: an hour of onions in butter, a splash of wine and broth, then toasted bread and cheese browned under the broiler. It's cold-weather food in France, and a Canadian winter gives you plenty of reasons to make it.
The hour of onions
Most of the flavour comes from the onions, and they need 45 minutes to an hour. Rush them over high heat and they burn at the edges while staying pale in the middle.
You want them soft, jammy and the colour of milky coffee, with a sticky brown layer on the bottom of the pot that the wine lifts off. Use yellow onions: sweet onions make a flat, sugary soup.
How full to fill the bowls
Fill each bowl to about 1 cm below the rim, so the toast sits at the top and the cheese can reach the edges and stick to them. Too low, and the cheese sinks into the soup instead of forming a crust.
Making it in Canada
The 2 French ingredients, and what to buy for them in Canada.
Gruyère ou comté→Swiss Gruyère, grated from a wedge
Paris cafés use Gruyère, and it's the Alpine cheese sold across Canada; Comté tastes close but is rarer and dearer here. It melts into a stretchy crust that browns in spots and tastes nutty against the sweet onions. Grate it from the block: pre-shredded bags have anti-caking starch that stops a smooth melt. Oka is a poor fit here: its washed-rind taste fights the onions and it melts runny instead of forming a crust.
🛒 Emmi Swiss Gruyère (150 g) at Walmart; in Quebec, Le Superbe Le Gruyère (195 g) at Metro. For less money, Président Emmental (220 g, Walmart) melts the same way with less flavour. Président Comté Le Montarlier (340 g, Walmart) if you see it.
Bouillon de bœuf→One carton reduced-sodium beef broth plus one carton no-salt-added chicken broth
Carton beef broth reduces into a salty, one-note soup. Half beef and half no-salt-added chicken gives a rounder, lighter broth, and you salt only after the 20-minute simmer, once you've tasted it. Two 900 mL cartons give 1.8 L: use 1.5 L and keep the rest to thin the soup if it reduces too far.
🛒 Campbell's 30% Less Sodium Beef Broth (900 mL) is at Walmart, and Voilà has Campbell's Less Sodium Beef Broth with Red Wine. Campbell's No Salt Added Chicken Broth (900 mL) is at Walmart and on Voilà. '30% less sodium' is not low-sodium, so taste before you salt.
Good to know: Any deep oven-safe ramekin or bowl works; check that it can go under the broiler.
Ready to cook?
French Onion Soup
Soupe à l'oignon gratinée
Onions cooked slowly until deep brown, simmered in broth with white wine, then topped with toasted baguette and cheese and grilled until bubbling. The old Paris market soup, made with yellow onions, two cartons of broth and Swiss Gruyère.
Prep time
20 min
Cook time
1 hr 30 min
Total time
1 hr 50 min
Servings
4
Ingredients
Original recipe: 4 servings.
Instructions
Start the onions. Melt the butter with the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and salt, stir to coat, and cook 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and reduced.
Brown them slowly. Keep cooking 30–45 minutes more, stirring every 5 minutes and lowering the heat as they colour, until the onions are deep golden-brown and sweet. If they stick, add a spoonful of water and scrape the bottom.
Add flour and wine. Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and scrape up everything stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Simmer. Add the broth, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then simmer 20 minutes. Remove the herbs and season with pepper, and salt only after tasting.
Toast the bread. Heat the broiler. Toast the baguette slices on a baking sheet until dry and golden on both sides; fresh bread needs a few minutes longer so it doesn't turn to mush in the soup.
Gratinate. Set 4 oven-safe bowls on a baking sheet and ladle in the hot soup. Float two slices of toast on each, cover generously with cheese right to the edges, and broil 3–5 minutes, until bubbling and spotted brown.
Notes
The soup, without the bread and cheese, keeps 4 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.
Reheat it until it simmers before you gratinate: under the broiler, the cheese browns long before cold soup gets hot.
If you don't have oven-safe bowls, put the cheese toasts under the broiler on a sheet and float them on the soup.
Course: Appetizers · Cuisine: French · Adapted for Canadian kitchens
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