French Onion Soup! What a Crock…

As a culinary instructor and food expert it was hard to imagine what recipe I would make for the Ghetto Foodie. Afterall, I have a reputation to uphold, I pride myself on using only quality ingredients, focusing on nutritious meals and ease of preparation. Then the cold hard fact slaps me right in the old kisser – hell I was raised on ghetto food. Cheez Whiz on celery, fried chicken cutlets on buns, powdered soup mixes, hamburger helper and my personal creation – Minute Rice topped with fried canned mushrooms and cheddar cheese! Ah yes, the good ‘ol days when I didn’t give a rats A#* about nutrition and I just wanted to feed my face. These days I wouldn’t dream of eating that stuff – it’s just the way I roll.

However, there are times I do skip steps and use less expensive ingredients, after all it takes the pressure off, both time wise and financially. It’s usually when I have to feed my extended family during one of my children’s birthdays. That’s right, the family gets the shaft! I skimp on ingredients and technique, because I know at the end of the day, they just want to eat and drink and couldn’t care less if the food was organic or if the cow was showered with love before going to the abattoir.

This year my darling son turned 13 and he requested that I make his favourite French Onion Soup. Well I’ll be damned if I was going to make stock from scratch or stand over the stove carefully caramelizing onions for 20 people. Nonetheless, his request was granted by making this no less that delicious Ghetto Foodie style French Onion Soup.

Crock Pot French Onion Soup

Ingredients

One 3lb bag of cooking onions

3 sprigs fresh thyme (if this isn’t ghetto enough use 1 tsp dried, but not powdered I beg of you!)

1 Cup of either beer or red wine – the choice is yours.

4 Tbsp butter (do not use margarine!)

3 Tbsp Soya Sauce

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 Tbsp brown sugar

5 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 boxes of Beef Stock (approximately 2 litres)

1 Baguette (if you can`t find baguette in the Ghetto, any white bread will do)

1 Cup grated Swiss cheese

Method

Peel onions, cut each one in half and then slice in half moons.

Place onions, thyme and butter in a crock pot.

Whisk together your beer or wine of choice with soya sauce, balsamic, brown sugar and flour.

Pour over onions in the crock pot and mix until all the onions are well coated.

Place the lid on and set your slow cooker to low for approximately 10 hours.

I like to do the above at night, then sleep while the slow cooker does all the work!

Then……

Place a medium soup pot on the stove over medium high heat, add all the stock and bring to a simmer.

Add the onion mixture to the stock, turn down the heat and cook for approximately 10 minutes.

While the soup is heating, slice your baguette into 1 inch thick pieces.

Place under the broiler and toast one side, flip over and toast the other side.

Sprinkle with grated Swiss cheese and broil until melted.

Ladle your soup into a bowl and top with the cheesy toast!

Regardless of the food at a family function, everyone knows that there is nothing more important than having alcohol on hand – and plenty of it. The hard stuff is better; I usually reserve shots of Scotch for myself, poured from my hidden bedroom stash.

The flavours in the soup are fantastic, onion and cheesy bread! My beverage of choice – Beer! If you used beer to cook your onions – drink the same one. Personally I chose Gosser, it has a smoky flavour and a rich creaminess, overall a well rounded flavour that goes perfectly with this soup!

About the Author…

Andrea Buckett enjoys a career that has embraced multiple arenas as a diversified food expert; her experience is rich in knowledge about all things food. Founder of Insatiable Food, Andrea has worked on television, magazines and social media as a food writer, recipe developer, culinary instructor and food event producer. Combined with a keen eye for food trends and a strong background in nutrition, her passion and strength is to inspire others to eat well. You can find Andrea writing her Blog Insatiable Food, and follow her on Twitter & Facebook. Andrea resides in Toronto with her husband and two sons.

You can find Andrea’s fabulous Blog here… insatiablefood.blogspot.com … You can Like her on Facebook for more Bad Recipes…and be sure to follow her on Twitter here… @insatiablefoods