Crock Pot French Onion Soup

Yes, I cheat. I use a crock pot. Like I said in my post about the corned beef, it is the greatest kitchen appliance you can own. Honestly, no one in their right mind has the time or energy to make prosciutto wrapped scallops with lemon beurre blanc after an 9 hour work day and Zumba. (you're right. I'm nuts.)

This is a hodge podge of a few different recipes - which is something I do often.  I'll look through cookbooks, or do some Google searches and just combine several recipes that I find. Jon had seen the recipe for French Onion Soup over the weekend, while I was flipping through Bon Appetit, Y'all, and decided that he really, really wanted some. My first thought about this was: I don't care what her recipe says, I'm using my crock pot.

And so I did this my way. I combined that recipe with a few others I found online and came up with this:

Crock Pot French Onion Soup

2 large onions, thinly sliced (by the way, the first recipe I saw called for 6 onions...SIX! seriously??? 

1 leek (the pale green and white parts), thinly sliced into half moons

1 clove garlic, chopped

4 tbs butter

2 tbs brown sugar

1 cup sherry, divided in half

5-6 cups beef stock 

salt and pepper to taste

3 sprigs thyme, divided

1/2 tbs rosemary

1 small baguette, cubed (for croutons)

olive oil

Sliced swiss cheese to serve

1. Night before: Add chopped onions, butter, leeks, garlic, brown sugar, and 1/2 of the sherry to the crock pot. Let cook overnight. (~8 hrs).

2. In the morning: your onions will have caramelized, and greatly reduced (but seriously, I couldn't have fit 6 onions in my crock pot). 

3. Add beef stock, salt, pepper, 2 sprigs thyme, and the other 1/2 of the sherry.

4. If, when you add your beef stock, your crock pot doesn't fill to the brim, add water so that it does. (The liquid will evaporate while it cooks and you will come home to crusty onions instead of soup.) Cook on low 8-10 hours.

5.  Jon did the croutons for me: mix rosemary, thyme, drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Coat bread and bake in 350 degree oven until crispy.

6. To serve: place croutons in the bottom of an ovenproof bowl, ladle soup over croutons, and top with cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese melts.

Dinner is served...and how easy was that!?

Tomorrow night is date night, so I get to eat at my favorite Chinese restaurant and you get nothin' ;)

(and if you haven't noticed, those soup crocks are a Christmas gift from Jon. Love them, love him!)