Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Vegetarian Dish

I adore French Onion Soup. So when I found a recipe for it, I thought I'd give it a try. Then I discovered that it can be frozen. Yipee! I'm still working with it a little. I don't think its salty enough. I'm going to make another batch today, and I'll let you know what I discover. Meanwhile, here's the recipe:

French Onion Soup
6 onions, sliced thin
4 Tbsp Butter
1/4 tsp. Salt
4 cups water
1 can beef broth
1 tsp. dried thyme
French Bread
Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Melt butter over med-low heat in 12-inch skillet. Add onions and salt to cook. When onions are tender, and begin to carmelize (45 minutes), reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, 15 minutes more until turn deep golden brown. Transfer onions to another pot. Add water, beef broth, and thyme.
Heat to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450.
Bake French bread for 10 minutes
Place oven-proof bowls on pan. Spoon soup into bowls.
Top soup with bread, then grate Gruyere or Swiss cheese onto bread.
Bake 12-15 minutes, until cheese has melted and begun to brown.

To FREEZE: Ladle soup into individual freezer containers (plastic or pint mason jars), let cool. Place slice of bread in plastic ziploc bag, grate cheese into another ziploc bag. Seal cheese bag, place inside of bread bag, label. Put lid on soup, tape bread/cheese bag to soup container. Freeze. When ready to reheat, thaw soup in refrigerator or microwave. No need to thaw bread and cheese. Then follow last two instructions in recipe. Bread and cheese will take longer to brown from frozen. Enjoy!