Baked French Onion Soup

This recipe is based upon my mom’s recipe for baked French onion soup, which is really quite famous in our family. I’ve never found a French onion better than my mom’s. The secret is tomato puree. The puree makes the soup a bit thicker than a traditional French onion and the tomato gives the soup a unique taste. Whenever I serve this to any of my friends they instantly love it.

ingredients.

1 32-oz box of beef stock
1 32-oz box of chicken stock
4 large onions sliced paper-thin
8 small garlic cloves, smashed
1 29-oz can tomato puree
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. rosemary, crushed
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 to 2 T. salt
2 bay leaves
Worcestershire sauce
nutmeg
1 c. butter
toast rounds, croutons, or stale bread
mozzarella, Muenster, and parmesan cheese

directions.

Heat large skillet for six minutes (over medium-low heat). Add the butter and heat until the butter turns a deep caramel color. Add the smashed garlic cloves and the onions. Cook the onions over medium-high until tender and all the butter/water has evaporated from the pan.
Remove from the browning skillet and place in a large stock pot. Add the beef and chicken stock, spices, salt and the tomato puree. Cook on medium heat about half an hour. Add the nutmeg and Worcestershire sauce (to taste) and dish into individual ceramic oven proof bowls.
Top with toast rounds, croutons or stale bread and cover with sliced cheese. Sprinkle with parmesan. Place in the oven and broil until cheese melts.

Friday at work I got four very large onions from two of my coworkers. Knowing I would be canning all day long on Saturday, I decided to use the onions to make soup for our day of canning. My mom’s soup recipe calls for two onions but I wasn’t able to double her recipe based upon the ingredients I bought at the store. Instead I tweaked the recipe to make it my own.

I prepared the soup Friday night and then we let it simmer in a crockpot all day long until we were ready to eat. For this batch I bought Muenster, Havarti and Fontina cheeses.

Recipe rating: 