French Onion Soup

This recipe is found in the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. There are so many recipes that sound great in that book, but they all take forever so I don't use it nearly as much as I would like. This was the first recipe we ever tried from the book and it remains one of our favorites.

We ran out of Parmesan this last time so we
tried adding some mozzarella. Not too bad.

• 4 medium onions (white)
• 1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) butter, melted
• 1 baguette
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 6 cups beef or chicken broth (beef preferred)
• additional grated Parmesan for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Peel onions, cut them in half from pole to pole and slice as thinly as possible. In a heavy soup pot, heat the butter. Remove pot from the heat.

Remove one end of the baguette and slice six one inch thick slices for the croutons. Cover the cut end of the bread and save for the other uses. Dip a pastry brush into the hot butter that is in the pot and brush one side of each slice with the butter. Place the slices butter side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with the cheese. Toast the bread in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until browned.

While the bread toasts, return the pot to the heat and add the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the sugar and continue to stir over medium high heat until the onions have browned, about 15 minutes.

Blend in the flour. Gradually add the broth while stirring and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered for 30 minutes. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and float a cheesy crouton in the center, then sprinkle cheese around the crouton.

NOTES: The onions are the worst part to prepare. Luckily for me I have a wonderful huband who will chop, slice and peel all onions for me. He likes to use a mandolin to get the really thin slices used in this recipe.

Go easy on the salt. I get reduced sodium broth whenever possible and do not add the teaspoon of salt until I have tasted it at the end. This can very quickly become a body-moisture-sucking bowl of liquid. I also use a mixture of chicken and beef broth. It adds a nice full flavor to it.

For the simplistic ones, dont hassle with the pastry brush and the butter. Just butter the bread like you normally would if you would eat it. Don't have too heavy of a hand though because this won't allow your bread to get crusty, which traditionally, it should be.

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 35
Total Time: 1 hr 5 min (on the high side)

Recipe from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz