French Onion Soup

It is a historic day for the SWTSIH blog, we finally found a good SOUP!  The french onion soup from cooking light is divine--so close to the original (trust me, we've had it in Paris)!  The recipe is very easy to follow but takes a few hours, so plan accordingly.  I made this when the hubs was sick with a nasty cold, and he sure felt better afterward! Its a soup that warms the soul on cold winter nights. I really don't see any reason why you shouldn't make this right now.

This recipe is so easy you can even screw it up as horribly as I did and it still turns out fantastic. I miscalculated the amount of beef broth needed and had to supplement with chicken broth.  So really I used half beef broth and half chicken broth and added 2 beef bullion cubes.  If you can screw it up that much and it's delicious, then it's a keeper. I may have added a little more onion but it was difficult to measure them into cups.

For servings, we used 2x the soup but only 1x the bread and cheese.

As of today's post 53 people gave this an average rating of 4 out of 5.

Recipe by Cooking Light, January 2005

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 2  teaspoons  olive oil
• 4  cups  thinly vertically sliced Walla Walla or other sweet onion
• 4  cups  thinly vertically sliced red onion
• 1/2  teaspoon  sugar
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  cup  dry white wine
• 8  cups  less-sodium beef broth
• 1/4  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
• 8  (1-ounce) slices French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 8  (1-ounce) slices reduced-fat, reduced-sodium Swiss cheese (such as Alpine Lace)

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions to pan; sauté for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in sugar, pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat to medium; cook 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Increase heat to medium-high, and sauté for 5 minutes or until onion is golden brown. Stir in wine, and cook for 1 minute. Add broth and thyme; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours.
Preheat broiler.
Place bread in a single layer on a baking sheet; broil 2 minutes or until toasted, turning after 1 minute.
Place 8 ovenproof bowls on a jelly-roll pan. Ladle 1 cup soup into each bowl. Divide bread evenly among bowls; top each serving with 1 cheese slice. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 290 (30% from fat)

Fat: 9.6g (sat 4.8g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.7g)

Protein: 16.8g

Carbohydrate: 33.4g

Fiber: 3.1g

Cholesterol: 20mg

Iron: 1.6mg

Sodium: 359mg

Calcium: 317mg