French Onion Soup

A few years ago I began my sourdough journey when I received some starter from my friend Taylor. I’ve made countless perfect loaves of bread but I was always seriously lacking in consistent slice thickness due to a very poor bread knife. Brad struggled to watch me go through this and so for my birthday this year he bought me a Tuo bread knife and it sliced through my bread like BUTTER! I posted it on my Instagram story and I’m so happy to report that Tuo reached out and asked if they could send me a knife to feature! I present to you…the Tuo 6.5” Nakiri! This vegetable cleaver has some serious power. It’s sharp and heavy and feels like it could cut through literally anything. I got so excited, I immediately started slicing things super thin just to feel like a true professional. After a week of using it daily, I would definitely recommend it and am thrilled to add it to my arsenal. It’s affordable and is a great addition to a knife set even for a beginner.

I decided I wanted to make a recipe to really highlight the use of the knife and what better use than chopping 8 onions!! So here on our first real wintery day, French Onion Soup!!! No sweat or blood, just an endless stream of tears. The amount of onions in this recipe is no accident. It will seem extreme and once you start caramelizing you'll wondering if there's even a light at the end of this pungent, oniony tunnel, but there is. After about an hour of sweating these onions, you'll be left with jammy caramelized goodness that gives this soup such a deep, rich flavour. Those flavours are only made better by the sourdough croutons and some of the best gruyere cheese pulls you've ever seen. Strap yourselves in for a deep winter classic, French Onion Soup.

Ingredients

• 8-10 Onions (3 different varieties for greater flavour profile)

• ½ cup Butter

• 1 cup of White Wine

• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire

• 3-4 cups of Beef Stock

• Fresh Thyme

• Parsley

• Bay Leaves

• Sour Dough Bread

• Gruyere Cheese

• Asiago Cheese (optional)

Directions

Melt your butter in a heavy bottom pot, add your onions and salt well. This will look and feel like an extreme amount of onions, but when you’re done, they’ll melt down to almost nothing. The caramelization process takes about an hour for this many onions. Keep a close watch and mix often to ensure your onions don’t burn. Once they start to change colour (about 50 minutes in) the caramelization process goes quickly so keep a close watch.

Once your onions have caramelized, deglaze with white wine and scrape anything stuck to the pot off. This just adds more flavour.

When the wine has evaporated, add your Worcestershire sauce and beef broth. Add your parsley, thyme, bay leaves and fresh ground pepper and bring to a simmer. Simmer everything together for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cut or rip your bread into small croutons and toast in the oven until a little bit crisp. Very thinly slice your gruyere and set aside.

Once your soup is ready, remove the parsley, thyme and bay leaf and give it a taste. Adjust flavour as necessary.

Grab yourself some oven-proof crocks. Ladle your soup into each crock, add a layer of croutons and top with your cheese. I like gruyere but if you want an added punch, add some asiago as well!

Broil your soups on high until your cheese starts to bubble.

Take it out of the oven and enjoy! Be careful, the soup below the croutons will be extremely hot!

Thank you again Tuo Cutlery for sending me this knife!