At brunch last weekend Susie asked me what would ever possess us to try to make french onion soup at home, and to be honest, it was the photo on the cover of the Jan/Feb 2005 issue of Cooking Light magazine. It looked that good.

While the soup was easy to make, it does require more onions than you think it would, even though onion is .. like.. in the NAME of the dish. Just be forewarned: It’s a lot of onions to carry home and a lot of onions to chop and a lot of crying going on. Also, we didn’t realize that the soup had to simmer for 2 hours. We were too obsessed with the photo to carefully read the instructions. .. so when we made it on a weeknight it was more like a midnight snack than dinner.

I’m not a huge connoisseur of french onion soup. I don’t remember ever eating it growing up and it’s just something that passed me by as an adult. .. so I was realy curious to see if I would like it. I know that trying the lowfat version of something isn’t the proper introduction, but then again, I wouldn’t know what I was missing if the fatty version tasted a lot better. Verdict: It’s great! And the leftovers heat up easy, just microwave a bowl/mug, top with toasted french bread and use the broiler to melt the cheese.

Click the link below for the French Onion Soup recipe (Cooking Light only provides recipes online to subscribers).

French Onion Soup

2 teaspoons olive oil
4 cups thinly vertically sliced Walla Walla or other sweet onion
4 cups thinly vertically sliced red onion
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dry white wine
8 cups less-sodium beef broth
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
8 (1-ounce) slices French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
8 (1-ounce) slices reduced-fat, reduced-sodium Swiss cheese (such as Alpine Lace)

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions to pan; sauté for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in sugar, pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat to medium; cook 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Increase heat to medium-high, and sauté for 5 minutes or until onion is golden brown. Stir in wine, and cook for 1 minute. Add broth and thyme; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours.

Preheat broiler.

Place bread in a single layer on a baking sheet; broil 2 minutes or until toasted, turning after 1 minute.

Place 8 ovenproof bowls on a jelly-roll pan. Ladle 1 cup soup into each bowl. Divide bread evenly among bowls; top each serving with 1 cheese slice. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.

Yield: 8 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 290(30% from fat); FAT 9.6g(sat 4.8g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 16.8g; CHOLESTEROL 20mg; CALCIUM 317mg; SODIUM 359mg; FIBER 3.1g; IRON 1.6mg; CARBOHYDRATE 33.4g

Cooking Light, JANUARY 2005