The Best No Wine French Onion Soup

ByJenn Giam Smith November 21, 2022February 25, 2023

Is there anything more comforting on a chilly day than a nice hot bowl of French onion soup? Especially with thick slices of toasted baguettes topped with gooey cheese.

This soup is one that takes time. It’s not a quick whip together, but it’s worth the time, I promise.

Finished Soup with two mozzarella croutons on top.

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Is there anything more comforting on a chilly day than a nice hot bowl of French onion soup? Especially with thick slices of toasted baguettes topped with gooey cheese.

This soup is one that takes time. It’s not a quick whip together, but it’s worth the time, I promise.

A few Notes for Success:

There are two essential components of a good French onion soup.

The first is the stock. Your soup will only be as good as the stock you are using. I mean, no matter if you use wine or not, the vast majority of this soup is made with beef stock. If you can make it from scratch, it makes a huge difference. I do recommend finding a good boxed beef stock you can use as a go-to when you don’t have homemade or can’t make homemade.

The second is the onions. It’s important to caramelize the onions properly. Caramelizing the number of onions needed in this recipe will take at least 30 minutes. Caramelizing is a chemical process that occurs when the sugars in the onions reach a specific temperature. This only happens after a long cooking time (sometimes, you can “speed it up” with sugar). The more caramelized, the deeper the color of the onions and the more flavor you’ll get from them. Trust me, it’s worth the time.

Storage

This soup on its own freezes well. Freeze the cooled soup for up to 3 months—Defrost in the refrigerator and reheat it by boiling it on the stovetop. Make the Mozzarella Croutons fresh.

Completely Optional Step

My Kids are not huge fans of the onion slices throughout the soup., They LOVE the flavor, but the onions give my kids an odd texture. So I blend the soup to make it smooth (this will also lighten the color of the soup). Then I top them with the croutons.

French Onion Soup (after pureeing onions)

ENJOY and Share!

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