This slow cooker French onion soup is ridiculously easy to make, mainly since it cooks in a slow cooker! After it's been simmering all day, you come home to an amazing aroma and a fabulous meal for a cold winter day. You do not have to caramelize the onions; you can melt the butter in your crockpot, stir in the onions to coat, add the remaining ingredients, and cook. However, caramelizing the onions makes for a much, much better soup!
Ingredients
- butter: 6 Tbsp
- yellow onions, sliced and separated into rings: 4 piece
- white sugar: 1 Tbsp
- garlic: 2 clove (minced)
- cooking sherry: 0.5 cup
- reduced-sodium beef broth: 7 cups
- sea salt: 1 tsp (to taste)
- thyme: 0.25 tsp (dried)
- bay leaf: 1 piece
- slices of French bread: 8 piece
- Gruyère cheese: 0.5 cup (shredded)
- Emmental cheese: 0.33333 cup (shredded)
- freshly shredded Parmesan cheese: 0.25 cup
- mozzarella cheese: 2 Tbsp (shredded)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Heat butter in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add onions; cook and stir until translucent, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle onions with sugar; reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions are soft and caramelized, at least 30 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
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Stir sherry into onion mixture; scrape the bottom to dissolve the small bits of browned food. Transfer onions into a slow cooker and pour in beef broth. Season with sea salt; stir in thyme and bay leaf. Cover and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 6 hours.
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Preheat the oven broiler about 10 minutes before serving. Set an oven rack about 8 inches from the heat source.
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Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet; broil until toasted, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
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Lightly toss Gruyere, Emmental, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses in a bowl. Fill oven-safe soup crocks 3/4 full with onion soup and float a bread slice in each bowl. Top each with about 2 tablespoons cheese mixture.
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Place filled bowls onto a baking sheet and broil until cheese topping is lightly browned and bubbling, about 2 minutes. Michael Di Roma
