The Best French Onion Soup
I have three girlfriends that are like my family. Liane, Dayna, and Jenn. We all went to high school together and have been friends for over 20 years now! A while back after we grew up and our lives started to get busy, we decided that once a month we would get together for lunch or dinner to make sure that we have time to catch up.  Sorta reminiscent of Sex and the City lol. We have slacked a bit here and there on our monthly meet ups, but we have a what app group chat going ALL THE TIME so we always know whats going on in each others lives anyways. Still, its nice to see each others faces from time to time too.
We are having one of these get togethers this weekend except we will be missing Jenn, who is in Africa still. (sad face) Liane and I are going to Vancouver to meet Dayna and go for dinner at Cuchillos (a Latin restaurant that has the most amazing taco creations ever) followed by whatever else we feel like.  The plan is to go back to Dayna’s and have some wine after dinner, but I would like to make a prediction that after a glass of wine or two Liane’s shoulders will start to shimmy and we may have to find somewhere we can go dancing for a bit before we go home. Either way, Im excited to have some time with my girls out having some fun.
What does this have to do with French Onion Soup you ask? Well…  When the four of us get together in the summertime, we like to go to this local vineyard called Domain de Chaberton in Langley, BC. And pretty much every time we go, at least 2 of us order the French Onion Soup. You see where Im going with this now…   Its soooo good there, that its hard to resist. They make it with all that gooey cheese on top bubbling over and its hard to resist. So now, French Onion Soup makes me think of my girlfriends and our lunch dates.
Debbie also often orders French Onion Soup when we go out for lunch. Only, she doesn’t like the soggy bread under the cheese so much so she pulls the cheese off the bread and eats the cheese with the soup alone. Smart right? Less carbs too.
I could just dive into all that cheesiness right now, that looks soooooo good!
A little while ago she told me that she had a fabulous recipe for French Onion Soup, so we decided to give it a shot. I cant even tell you how good it was! The soup broth is so flavorfull! You can just taste the hint of red wine in the broth and it has just the perfect amount of thyme.  So good!
When we made this, we kept a close eye on the onions when they were cooking at the beginning. Debbie said that she didn’t like her soup with caramelized onions because it makes the soup sweet. So we cooked the onions till they were just starting to turn a little brown and then we added the broth. Its up to you how long you cook the onions for. Cook them how you like them in your soup.  I have to say though, her method created the best French Onion Soup I have ever had, so that’s how I will do it from now on.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 6 onions , sliced
- 2 leeks , chopped and washed
- 1 tbsp salt plus 1 tsp
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 boxes beef broth (900 mls each)
- 2 tsp fresh thyme , pulled off the stems and chopped
- 1 guryre cheese rind
- 1 big clove of roasted garlic , smashed up. FOR THE TOPPING
- Couple slices of a baguette for each bowl (or one slice if you have big bread)
- Big slices of cheese. Enough to cover the bread. We like Gruyere cheese , but you can use what you like.
Instructions
- Get your head of garlic roasting. Cut the top off the garlic head and put it on a piece of tin foil, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast in the oven for about 30 -40 min at 400 degrees. Let it cool a little when its done and squeeze out the cloves. We like to use the small toaster oven for these. It works great.
- Heat the olive oil in a big pot on medium-low heat.
- Slice up your onions and throw them in. Sprinkle with the salt.
- Slice your leeks and put them in a bowl of water and swish them around good. Leeks can get dirty in between the layers so you have to rinse them really well after they are chopped up. Add them to the pot.
- Cook the onions and leeks for about 20 min or until they just start to turn brown.
- Add the wine and simmer to reduce just a little. About 5 mins.
- Add the beef broth, fresh thyme, cheese rind, and roasted garlic.
- Bring it to a low boil and then simmer for a few mins before serving.
FOR THE TOPPING - Once the soup is spooned into a bowl. Place a baguette slice or two on top of the bowl of soup and top that with cheese. Place into the oven on Broil for a few mins. Be careful it doesn't burn! Debbie and I took turns watching ours. They can burn really quick!
- Once the cheese is bubbling, pull it out and eat it!
