Brenden and I have been wanting to make this soup for a while now but we were always too intimidated by it. I don't know why, maybe it was the complex ingredients including onions and broth or the thought of crying while we cut up the abundance of onions. Who knows. But when we saw this recipe the was nothing to be intimidated by. It is so simple, fairly quick, and definitely the best soup we have made from "scratch." It was pretty much three simple steps: sauteing up some onion slices, adding broth, and broiling. No joke. I think the hardest part of the entire dish was separating the thyme leaves from their sprigs. You barley need any spices, the onion does wonders for the flavor, it tastes much more complex then it is. And even though this recipe is not vegetarian it would be easy to swap out the beef broth for veggie broth. I don't think it would effect the flavor at all because the thyme and onions are so vibrant.

Usually our soups taste better the next day, after all of the spices have had a chance to set and come together, truly bringing out the flavor. Well not this crock. It was perfect and bursting with flavor from the first big slurp we took. The warm soup; the soaked but still crusty bites of bread; the melted cheese trailing from your spoon back to the bowl. All of the components are delicious and blend from the start. In fact, it was so good, there was hardly any soup left to try the next day. Luckily our satisfied taste buds convinced our overly full stomachs that it was worth it. Just try not to burn your mouth because your anticipation won't allow for the cooling time - Brenden knows, he has the burnt tongue to prove it. Again, so worth it.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients