French Onion Beef Soup is not your average French Onion soup, it’s jazzed up like 1000%! Extra meat and extra cheese make this soup over the top!
It seems as though most of the country is covered with snow now! Wow, that was quite a storm that blew through. I feel bad for my friends who live in the South. I’m sure that they have been in “holy cow, now what do we do ” mode! This was only our third round of snow this winter in Denver. We only got a few inches so it’s really just more of a nuisance. The below zero temperatures were horrible but now we are back to having our 50 degree days so all is good in paradise! Good news though, the ski resorts are getting dumped on so I can start thinking about dusting off the skis!
While we were confined to our homes on Thursday because of snow and minus seven-degree temperatures, I needed to make soup. I seriously needed a hot bowl of soup! I have been craving French onion soup for quite some time now and Thursday seemed to be the perfect day to make it and oddly enough, I had all the ingredients on hand!
While I was pondering a recipe to makeup, I thought of a couple things that French onion soup lacks. One, there is never enough cheese and two, where’s the meat? One pet peeve of mine is when you eat a hot bowl of French onion, once the cheese is gone, so is the joy. So why not put a handful of Swiss cheese in the bottom and on the top of the bowl? This way every single bite has the melty cheese in every bite! Genius!
Along with my cheese issue, I like to eat soup as a meal. Typically French onion soup is always on the appetizer menu, why not add some chunks of hearty meat to make it an actual meal? Well, I solved my dilemmas with these two additions. Finally, I’m in the boat that the bread that goes into the soup gets too soggy for me. I omitted it from the soup and just served it up with a hunk of French bread on the side! Delicious if I do say so myself!
Try this French Onion Beef Soup. It’s like French Onion Soup but so much better!!
Are you looking to try another kind of French onion soup? Give my French Chicken Onion Soup a try!
Enjoy and stay warm!
French Onion Beef Soup
Ingredients
- 3 cups Swiss cheese shredded
Carmelized Onions
- 2 1/2 pounds sweet yellow onions cut in half and sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon each, salt and pepper
For the Soup
- Olive oil
- 1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat cut into bite-size pieces
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms optional
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup red wine I used a Pinot Noir
- 8 cups beef broth
Instructions
To make the Soup
- To make the soup, coat the bottom of a large dutch oven with olive oil. Heat up to a medium temperature. Brown the meat in small batches making sure that you season each batch with a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside when all the beef is browned.
- In the same pot that the meat was cooked in, over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions. Cook until the onions become translucent. Add the garlic, mushrooms, herbs, salt, and pepper. Cook for about 7 minutes or until the mushrooms have cooked through. Stir in the Worchestershire, wine and broth. Cover and bring to a boil.
- Place the covered pot in a 325-degree oven and cook until the beef becomes tender about 1 1/2-2 hours.
Carmalized Onions
- While the soup is in the oven make the caramelized onions. In a large sauté pan on medium-low heat, melt the butter with the olive oil. Add the onions, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Stir until incorporated. At this point, let the onions cook stirring every ten minutes or so. Continue to cook the onions until they become a deep golden brown. This will take 45-60 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
To Assemble the Soup
- When the beef soup is done cooking, stir in the onions and keep warm on the stove. To assemble the soup. In 4-6 ovenproof soup bowls add 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese to the bottom of the bowl and ladle the soup over the cheese. Top the soup with another 1/2 cup or so of cheese. Place the soup under the broiler and broil until a golden brown color is achieved.
Double cheese, chunks of meat, mushrooms, caramelized onions… Did I mention double the cheese?
Caramelized Onions are easy to make, it just takes time! Worth every minute of it!