This is the quickest and the easiest French onion soup. It’s ready in under 15 minutes but is as decadent and delicious as the original.
Back when I was a kid I loved French Onion Soup. But if you’d told me that it was made mostly out of onions, I wouldn’t have believed you because it didn’t taste oniony to me. It was all gooey and sweet and rich and mellow and goooood.
Nowadays I understand how it’s possible to get such beautiful flavors. Onions have sugar in them and when you cook them, that sugar gets caramelized and so sweet. If you make a soup out of those caramelized sweet onions, it’s a beautiful thing. Especially when that delicious soup is topped with a cheesy bread.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
What Is French Onion Soup?
This classic dish is, in fact, an onion soup that originated in France. It goes all the way back to the 18th century, but became very popular in the United States in the 1960s.
The soup is made with caramelized onions and a beef broth with wine added. It’s topped with croutons or bread and melty cheese. In traditional recipes the caramelization process can take up to an hour, but I’m going to show you a way to speed things up today. The classic version is especially delicious, but I often just don’t have that kind of time.
Faster French Onion Soup
This French Onion Soup recipe is ready in under 20 minutes. The key is to get the onions cooking as soon as possible and to not use very many of them so that they don’t crowd the pan. Once they’re underway, you warm up some broth and add some flavorful things to it so that it can infuse. And you turn on the broiler because there is going to be some cheese toast to make. Oh yes. We’re going to top each bowl of soup with cheese toast.
As with all of the SOUPin15 recipes, this one comes with a SouperTip for making soups delicious in a short amount of time. The SouperTip for the Quick French Onion Soup is to use wine. Wine adds sweetness and acidity to soups and can take a broth from ordinary to extraordinary. It’s important to add the wine at the beginning of cooking the soup though. Or, as I’ve done in today’s recipe, add it to simmering vegetables and let it reduce for a minute before adding it to the soup. In this way, the wine simultaneously intensifies and loses some of its harsher flavor.
You won’t be able to taste the wine in the soup. It just adds that little extra depth and flavor that makes the soup taste like more than just broth and onions.
What Kind Of Cheese Goes On Top?
Gruyere cheese is the classic choice, but if you don’t have that available there are some other good substitutions. You can also try gouda, fontina, Swiss cheese, or mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses for your homemade French onion soup.
Whatever kind of cheese you are using, you’ll want to slice your baguette and toast it under the broiler. Then flip the bread and sprinkle each slice with cheese and put them back under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Keep an eye on these, they can go from toasty to burnt quickly if you aren’t paying attention!
And, if you love cheese as much as me, be sure to check out this other cheese-lover’s soup, my easy Broccoli Cheddar Soup. So good!
More Delicious Soup Recipes
And, if you love soup as much as me, then you need to have a browse through all of my delicious soup recipes over here (there are over 70 of them!), and I’m linking to a few of my favorites here for you as well:
- Beef and Farro Soup
- Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
- Garlic Soup Recipe
- Green Pea Soup With Ham
- Easy Vegetable Soup
- Chicken and Dumpling Soup
Podcast Episode About Making French Onion Soup
Listen to learn how to make this recipe, along with some great tips from me along the way!
PrintQuick And Easy French Onion Soup
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: French
DESCRIPTION
This is the quickest and the easiest French onion soup. It’s ready in under 15 minutes but is as decadent and delicious as the original.
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut in pieces
- 3 large sweet onions, sliced thinly
- 1 and 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
- 3/4 tsp. salt, divided
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 6 cups low-sodium beef stock
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme*
- 6 slices baguette or other white bread
- 5 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded
- 1 cup red wine**
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and spread them out. Increase heat to medium-high. Add the brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and the black pepper. Stir. Cover skillet (if you don’t have a cover for it, use a large baking sheet or a big piece of aluminum foil). Continue to cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until well-browned and very soft, 10-11 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the broiler. Then, pour the beef stock into a large pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Add 1/2 of the teaspoon of salt and the thyme. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer.
- While the stock is heating, put bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and put it under the broiler until tops of bread slices are toasted. Remove toast from broiler. Flip slices over. Top each with some of the cheese. Return it to under the broiler until cheese is melted. Remove from oven.
- When the onions are well-browned, add the wine to them. Stir it until most of the wine has evaporated. Add the onions and wine to the hot stock. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
- Ladle soup into bowls. Top each serving with a slice of cheese toast.
Notes
*You can use 1/2 tsp. dried thyme instead of the fresh sprigs.
**Instead of red wine, 1/4 cup of sherry can be used along with 3/4 cups of broth. Or, for a non-alcohol substitute, combine 1 cup beef stock with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.
This post originally appeared in December 2014 and was revised and republished in April 2023.