Alcohol Free French Onion Soup
I love a good soup. Especially on cool fall days. I especially love having a big batch of soup to heat up for two or three days, as things can get hectic with baby. While I am on maternity leave from my social work job, I am enjoying time with baby Hannah and more time on my blog. Today, I am sharing an alcohol free french onion soup recipe.
So, I have to be honest. I’d never had French Onion Soup before I started making it myself. This is because in restaurants and cafes, the recipe contains not only alcohol but beef stock. I decided to also make this recipe vegetarian, but you can definitely use beef stock 🙂
I used my Le Creust dutch oven for this soup. It is important to have a heavy bottom pot, to ensure even cooking of the onions. Speaking of which, it is important to use a white onion or vidailla. I would not recommend using red onions.
As for the cheese, I chose a gruyere. You can use swiss or even mozzarella. I used my food processor to shred the cheese, but you can do it by hand. I would not recommend using pre shredded cheese, as it will not melt as nicely.
Also, if you haven’t already, please enter my contest on Instagram! The prize includes ‘America The Great Cookbook’, which I contributed a recipe too. A $100 Amazon gift and tons of my favorite kitchen tools! Head to Amanda’s Plate Instagram for official rules!
- 5 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 8 cups beef or vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup grape juice concentrate
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Topping
- 1 cup (or more if you like) Gruyere or Swiss cheese
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 8 1-inch thick pieces of baguette, toasted until hard
- Melt butter and olive oil in a dutch oven pot and add in the onions. Place the lid on the pot.
- Allow to steep for 15 minutes on low heat.
- Remove lid and increase heat to medium and stir the onions.
- Add the salt and sugar to the onions and continue to stir, until the onions caramelize and are a golden brown.
- Add in the fresh thyme.
- Sprinkle the onions with flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
- Add the grape juice, vinegar and stock, stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Bring to a simmer. Cover pot with lid partially and simmer for 30 minutes.
- While the soup is simmering, brush the baguette slices with melted butter.
- Preparing your oven safe serving dishes or ramekins.
- Ladle soup into ramekins and top with a butter baguette slice. Sprinkle bread with cheese.
- Place ramekins on a baking sheet and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted for about 5 minutes.
- Enjoy!
This recipe is adapted from Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.
Make this recipe? I would love to see! Tag me using #CreateAmandasPlate
Xoxo,
Amanda
