Do you love rich and delicious, gourmet-style, restaurant-style French onion soup?, you came to the right place! Welcome! I’m a big lover of French onion soup too. Especially in the winter months, but of course I can not pass a chance to enjoy it any time, especially when I’m at a French restaurant or any time French onion soup is calling my name 🙂
   Back to French onion soup home made recipe, my recipe is not the average recipe found on the internet.
You need to have lots of onions, prepare to cry, prepare to stink your house and prepare at least one hour of your time to put your heart and soul into your French onion soup.

So let’s begin to the perfect French Onion Soup 
- 3-4 Tablespoons butter (unsalted or salted is ok)
- 7-9 medium or even large onions (note: the onions will reduce their size dramatically during their caramelizing process) – white onions, sweet onions and yellow onions are ok. You can use 1 purple onion to add to the process as well. Slice the onions into half circles
- 2 quarts organic beef broth, full sodium (about 2 liters) I usually get mine from Trader Joe’s. You can use low sodium of course, then adjust your salt taste to your liking.
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme (some extra fresh thyme is good to use too)
- 1 cup red wine (Cabernet, Merlot or Pinot Noir is great)
- 1/2 cup dry sherry cooking wine (found in most supermarkets) Similar to this Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine. I see Amazon has crazy prices for this, but in your local supermarket you should be able to find it for $3-5 per 16 oz bottle.
- 3-4 Tablespoons Demi-Glace. This is optional, but I highly recommend this. It helps to thicken the soup and adds the rich gourmet taste to it. I searched for many different demi-glace; most of them sadly have added not needed chemicals and preservatives, but this one – More than Gourmet classic French demi-glace makes a cut. It is all natural, with no preservatives, GMO, fillers or chemicals. It is not cheap, but so worth it. I suggest you get a 16 oz tub to get a better price. Will last you much longer and you can use it for other gourmet style sauces.
- Salt and pepper to taste
- French bread or french baguette
- Gruyere cheese (Swiss, Mozzarella and Provolone will work too, but I suggest to mix it as well) My favorite combination is Gruyere and Swiss or Gruyere and mozzarella.
- 2 TBS Flour (optional and it helps thicken the soup)
- Lipton Onion Soup and dip mix – found in most supermarkets. It adds great taste to the finished soup. I love this product. You can make several recipes from it, like onion dip and onion roasted potatoes.
- Green onions for decoration and to add the last touch (you can use fresh thyme too)

This is how to slice onions for French onion soup. Cut one onion in half. Then cut “the half” in half and start slicing.

This is how your onions should look. After about 1 hour. Beautiful caramelized onions. They are sweet at this point. So no need to add any sugar. By the way, these caramelized onions are gourmet style and perfect addition to any dish or I know a lot of people that add them to hamburgers. Enjoy!
There’s no French Onion Soup Police!

- 3-4 Tablespoons butter (unsalted or salted is ok)
- 7-9 medium or even large onions (note: the onions will reduce their size dramatically during their caramelizing process) – white onions, sweet onions and yellow onions are ok. You can use 1 purple onion to add to the process as well. Slice the onions into half circles
- 2 quarts organic beef broth, full sodium (about 2 liters) I usually get mine from Trader Joe’s. You can use low sodium of course, then adjust your salt taste to your liking.
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme (some extra fresh thyme is good to use too)
- 1 cup red wine (Cabernet, Merlot or Pinot Noir is great)
- ½ cup dry sherry cooking wine (found in most supermarkets) Similar to this Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine. I see Amazon has crazy prices for this, but in your local supermarket you should be able to find it for $3-5 per 16 oz bottle.
- 3-4 Tablespoons Demi-Glace. This is optional, but I highly recommend this. It helps to thicken the soup and adds the rich gourmet taste to it. I searched for many different demi-glace; most of them sadly have added not needed chemicals and preservatives, but this one – More than Gourmet classic French demi-glace makes a cut. It is all natural, with no preservatives, GMO, fillers or chemicals. It is not cheap, but so worth it. I suggest you get a 16 oz tub to get a better price. Will last you much longer and you can use it for other gourmet style sauces.
- 1 packet of Lipton Onion soup mix
- Salt and pepper to taste
- French bread or french baguette
- Gruyere cheese (Swiss, Mozzarella and Provolone will work too, but I suggest to mix it as well) My favorite combination is Gruyere and Swiss or Gruyere and mozzarella.
- 2 TBS Flour (optional and it helps thicken the soup)
- Green onions for decoration and to add the last touch (you can use fresh thyme too)
- The directions below will apply to Instant Pot. If you don’t have one – no worries, just follow the precise instructions below and after the last step – let the soup simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
- Melt butter on medium heat in Instant Pot. You can use a large Dutch oven or large heavy pot instead, preferably stainless steel.
- Add onions
- This is very important step, pay attention: Cook onions at this point, stirring just as needed to keep onions from sticking, until they are melting and soft, golden brown, and beginning to caramelize, about to minutes to an hour. (Note: If onions become to stick (And they will), simply keep adding some water and start “deglazing”. Deglazing is a simple process, you just take your wooden spatula and keep scraping up the fond from the bottom of the pan and keep stirring it into the onions. This is how your onions should look now, after about an hour.
- Sprinkle flour over onions, and stir to coat.
- Add red wine, sherry, stock, and thyme, and bring to a simmer.
- In a small sauce pan over low heat mix 3-4 TBS Demi-Glace with water, according to instructions, and add the mixture to the soup.
- a. In a separate pan mix the Lipton onion soup mix according to instructions on the package and add it to the soup.
- At this point take a spoon and taste your bullion and see if any more salt is needed.
- Add 1 tsp Ground pepper and 1 tsp ground garlic powder.
- Close the Instant Pot lid, seal to pressure, and set pressure cook for 10 minutes. (Note: if you’re not using Instant Pot, let your soup simmer on low heat for 40-60 minutes)
- While the soup is cooking, toast breads in your toaster; set aside.
- Once soup is done, add hot soup into ovenproof bowls. I used French onion soup crocks with handles. If you don’t have those, just make sure the bowls you’re using are oven proof. Arrange the bowls on a baking pan. Place 1 or 2 slices of toasted bread over each bowl of soup. Sprinkle ½ cup grated cheese over bread in each bowl, and place under the broiler until cheese is melted and crusty brown around the edges. Watch carefully that bread and cheese doesn’t burn. Serve immediately and enjoy. Yes, it will be very hot at first.
Irina
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There’s no onion soup police LOL! This looks so delicious. I can’t wait to try. Thanks for the recipe and explaining the steps.
I made this yesterday and it was fantastic! I did make a couple of changes to make it vegetarian for my daughter (veg broth instead of beef and omitting he Demi glace), and it turned out awesome. Being patient with the onions and not rushing the process was worth it. Thank you!
HI Amy…
So glad you liked the recipe. I can’t wait to start making it again when the weather gets cold… You’re right – being patient with onions is the key to successful FO soup and so many other recipes that would love a touch of caramelized onions
Hi. How can I print recipes from you blog. Thank you.
Linda, sorry this recipe didn’t have a recipe card for some reason… now it does and you can print it. Thanks for letting me know. Enjoy!