French Onion Soup with Cheese toast

My kids love French Onion Soup, but I think they just really like the cheese toast that we serve with it.  I use Crock Pot cooked Caramelized onions, so that cuts a step out of the process, and we can have it as a week night dinner.

French Onion Soup with Cheese Toast

1 batch of Caramelized onions.

4 cups Chicken broth (I use better then bouillon)

4 cups Beef Broth (better bouillon again but in beef flavour)

1 star anise

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup Sherry

salt and pepper to taste

balsamic vinegar to taste, optional

Baguette

Gruyere cheese, grated about 1 cup

Place all ingredients (except baguette and cheese) in pot and simmer, about 1 hour( or less if you are in a rush)

Shortly before the soup is finished, slice the baguette in to thin slices, and toast under the broiler until lightly golden.

Remove pan from oven, turn the slices over and generously sprinkle with the gruyere cheese, place back under the broiler until the cheese is melted, golden if you like it that way or less if you don't want it too crispy.  

Serve soup and place the cheese toast in the soup.  Yum

 

Lazy Caramelized onions

We all love French Onion Soup or as the French call it "Onion Soup."  Making the caramelized onions is the most time consuming part and it is quite labour intensive since you have to stand there the whole time and it always takes longer then the recipe states, always.  You can not make decent caramelized onions in 20 minutes it always takes 45-90 minutes depending on the quantity.

I have come up with the perfect solution to this problem.  I don't like standing stirring for and hour but I will happily let them cook for 6-8 hours in the slow cooker.

A lazy girls best friend, the Crock-pot.

There are so many wonderful things that can be made with Caramelized onions.  I would like to state here that I know that caramelized onions are not actually caramelized, they are browned in a Maillard Reaction, but that is the common name for these things and they are delicious, so there.

On tonight's menu is:

Caramelized Onion Tart with Goat Cheese and Thyme

and

French Onion Soups

Crock-Pot Caramelized Onions

3 lbs Onions, thinly sliced (A mandoline is you friend for this, but you can do it with a knife as well)

2-3 tbsp melted Butter or Olive Oil

2-3 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar,optional ( I use white balsamic vinegar because I am allergic to red)

1-2 tbsp Brown Sugar, optional

Salt and pepper to taste

6-8 hours in the slow cooker.

Notes: you may want to try this on a day you are home since all crockpots cook a little differently.  I like to stir mine a bout 30 minutes into cooking and near the end so everything cooks nice and brown.

These can be used for all your caramelized onion needs and they freeze really well, so if you have extra you can save it up for another project later.