Made almost entirely of caramelized onions, beef broth, wine and cheese-topped toast, French onion soup is marvelous in its simplicity. Its short ingredient list also makes it a fine candidate for a 5:30 Challenge transformation.
The trick is to figure out how to build the sweet, toasty brown notes of the onions in a fraction of the time. Forget proper caramelization; that’s a Sunday project.
Instead, pile three bags of frozen chopped onions in a pot, along with a rind or two sliced from a block of Gruyere cheese. (You can grate the cheese in a bit, as the soup cooks.) Cover the pot and thaw the onions under a hot flame. Once their rendered liquid has begun to simmer, remove the lid and use that rendered liquid to cook the onions until tender. As the onions cook, the liquid will evaporate, leaving behind quite a bit of fond (those delicious browned bits). Next, deglaze the fond with hefty glugs of white wine, which will continue to build color and flavor. Finally, pour in a box of beef or vegetable stock, plus a bit of water and salt. Let the soup simmer while you assemble generously coated cheese toasts, which you’ll pop on top of each individual bowl of soup.
It is not traditional French onion soup, but, between the double dose of Gruyere and the rapid browning of the onions, this recipe will get you pretty darn close — and you can pull it off on a Thursday night.
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