"AMERICAN" ONION SOUP

Categories Soup/Stew Vegetable Appetizer Simmer

Yield 4-6 Bowls

Number Of Ingredients 17

Ingredients

2 yellow onions or Vidalia onions
1 red onion
1 white onion
(or any combo of 4 onions)
Unpasteurized apple cider
all purpose white flour
Swanson Beef Stock
Swanson Beef Broth
Seasoned Salt
Unsalted Butter
White Pepper
5 Dried Bay Leaves
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine
Worchestershire Sauce
Crusty French Bread
White Cheddar Cheese (Anything from Cracker Barrel's Vermont White Cheddar to Irish Sharp Cheddar - anything sharp that you can grate)
Shredded Mozzarella (Sargento's or like - this is less important than the cheddar)

Steps:

First, chop the onions into thin slices. Really any amount of about 4 onions works, but I prefer the taste of these three together. While you are cutting your last onion, start to melt about 4 Tbsp of butter in your pot on a low heat. Bring the heat up to a medium heat and put the onions in the melted butter. With a whisk, stir to coat. Then sprinkle the onions with about 3 Tsp seasoned salt and whisk to distribute evenly. Caramelize the onions - don't stir too often or they won't brown. When the onions get to the point where they are sticking to the pan a bit, grab your apple cider. Pour 1/2 cup of apple cider in, and let the apple cider simmer down so that the onions are almost to the consistency they were before, only with a bit of apple cider still there. Put in 4 TBSP all purpose flour. Whisk this into a roux. It will look like onions mixed with sand almost. When well blended, pour in 3/4 cup beef stock and whisk together until you see no more flour clumps. From there, throw in your 5 bay leaves, pour in 2 1/2 more cups of beef broth, and 3/4 dry white wine. Move to a medium-high heat and get it up to a light boil, then throw in your 3 Tsp Worchester sauce, 2 tsp white pepper, and 1 more tsp of seasoning salt. Let simmer for about 20-ish minutes, or until a bit of the broth cooks down. While the soup is simmering, preheat your oven to the "broil" (or top-broil for some) setting. Cut your french bread - this can be really any white bread from a previous meal - into small cubes. Or better yet - skip the knife and just rip the bread! Throw these into an oven safe soup crock . Once the soup is done, ladle the soup over the bread until there is about 1/4inch of room between the soup and the top of the bowl. Sprinkle with mozzarella first so that the soup is covered with some gaps. Fill in the gaps and cover again with the white cheddar cheese. Put this in your oven to broil for about 4-5 minutes - just keep an eye on it. Let cool and then enjoy!