French Onion and Shallot Soup with Roasted Mushrooms

One of my top favorite soups of all time is French Onion Soup. I’m dreaming of the day that I can go to France and ask for a “ soupe à l'oignon” in my worst possible accent, but for right now, I’ll enjoy making it and eating it at home!

I’ve made classic French onion soup, which will forever hold a place in my heart but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t add a little something and added a twist to it: Enter French Onion and Shallot Soup with Roasted Mushrooms. To make this classic soup a bit more hearty I added a hint of cream and a mushroom topping (you guys should know by now that I will add mushrooms to any dish).

Here Are the Step by Step Details:

So, let’s start with obvious, You need onions to caramelize. Let’s talk about caramelizing the onions real quick.

I’ve made a lot of French onion soup over the years. Sometimes I’ve taken my sweet time with the onions and really let them caramelize (Which you should do WHEN you have the time) but with this soup, I wanted to caramelize them enough to ensure they still had a deep flavor but didn’t take as much time as I normally would. Also, just FYI, caramelizing them to that deep dark stage takes lots of time and attention to detail.

But what I want to stress, though, is that you don't have to, and you may well discover, as I have, that you find the soup still as delicious when you don't cook the onions to a deep, dark brown stage.

For this recipe I chose Yellow onion and Shallots, now I know shallots aren’t typical in the soup but shallots add really good balance of sweetness, with both bright flavors and deep, rich ones, and just a hint of bitterness.

Back to caramelizing; onions do not caramelize in 15-20 minutes and unless you're cooking a very small batch maybe 30 minutes. Typically it takes 1-2 hours to cook the onions but I did not (for this recipe) cook it for that long, I only cooked them for 30 minutes, at first I was skeptical but the end results were way above expectations so I’m glad I went With that. Now, you can cook them way longer than that but remember you have to stay on top of them!

Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let’s move on to the rest of the ingredients I chose for this recipe. Garlic, herbs, butter, honey and white wine help the onions to caramelize and all also infuses the onions with incredibly rich flavor. Butter, herbs, garlic, white wine and honey. Trust me, It’s delish. If you prefer not to cook with wine, I recommend using about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar to caramelize the onions.

With the onions caramelized, the next step is to add the liquid and simmer it all together. Chicken broth is your best option, and it produces absolutely wonderful results. If you have homemade broth on hand, USE IT— but you can use store-bought as well and to make this vegetarian, you can use vegetable broth. After adding the broth, Simmer the soup and add a small amount of cream or half and half, it won’t be heavy if you use it, instead it adds a richness that makes it a little more hearty and indulgent. I love a hearty soup!

On to the Finishing Touches:

When the soup is simmering and right before it’s ready for the oven, you start working on the mushrooms. This part is very easy. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Place about 3-4 tbsp on butter on top of the mushrooms and roast them just until golden. This is totally optional but it’s also worth making.

When the soup is ready for the oven and the mushrooms are done, place the soup into oven safe bowls, top with crusty bread, the mushrooms and lots of Gruyere cheese then transfer it to the oven until the cheese has melted. Ohhh, I did go the extra mile and fried some sage to add when the soup was out of the oven but this is not needed either, this is just my little finishing touch.

This soup is truly one of those crave-worthy, winter comfort foods.

If you make this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love to hear from you guys and of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!