French Onion Soup with Gruyère Croutons
Cheese pulling in long molten threads from a dark-gold crust, the broth beneath glossy with caramelised onion sweetness and thyme.
Ingredients
Serves 4- 1.2litres good beef stock
- 1 tbspplain flour
- salt and black pepper
- 1½ kgwhite onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2sprigs fresh thyme
- 200 mldry white wine
- 60 gunsalted butter
- 1 tbspolive oil
- 2bay leaves
- 1 tspWorcestershire sauce
- 8slices baguette, 2cm thick
- 180 gGruyère cheese, coarsely grated
- 1leek, finely sliced
Method
- Melt the butter and olive oil together in a large heavy-based pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and leek with a big pinch of salt; the salt pulls the water out and gets the caramelisation moving. Stir to coat.
- Cook gently, stirring every 5 minutes, for 50–60 minutes. You're after deep mahogany, jammy, sweet; not pale and softened. Don't be tempted to crank the heat: scorched onions taste bitter, slow onions taste of honey. If the base starts to catch too dark, splash in a tablespoon of water and scrape.
- Turn the heat up to medium and stir in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes to lose the raw-flour taste. Pour in the white wine, let it bubble hard for 3 minutes, and scrape up every brown stuck bit from the base.
- Add the beef stock, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 25 minutes. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce.
- Taste. The broth should taste rounded and deeply savoury; if it reads flat, it needs salt, not more time.
- Meanwhile, toast the baguette slices under a hot grill until golden on both sides. Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaves from the soup.
- Preheat the grill to high. Ladle the hot soup into 4 ovenproof bowls, float 2 toasted baguette slices on top of each, and pile the Gruyère on generously; right to the edges, so it seals the bowl and crisps against the rim.
- Sit the bowls on a baking tray and grill for 3–4 minutes until the cheese is melted, bubbling and spotting dark gold. Pull them out, drizzle each with extra virgin olive oil, crack black pepper over the top, and serve immediately; warn anyone at the table that the bowls are screaming hot.
Per serving
- kcal
- 689
- protein
- 24.5g
- fibre
- 9.2g
- carbs
- 69.4g
- fat
- 32.6g
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