Healthy French Onion Soup Recipe
Soup, glorious soup. It’s such an easy way to start a multi-course meal or, paired with a side salad and sprouted bread, a simple lunch or dinner. And there’s no better — or easier — soup than this onion soup recipe.
You’ve likely had classic French onion soup at a restaurant or cafe but for an everyday soup, it can be too rich. With this version, you can enjoy homemade, healthy French onion soup whenever the mood strikes.
Key Ingredients
This French onion soup uses just five ingredients. Onions are surprisingly powerful little vegetables. Onion nutrition is packed with antioxidants that can lower inflammation and may even help fight cancer. Research studies have shown an inverse relationship between the frequent consumption of onion and garlic and the risk of several common cancers, including esophageal, colorectal and breast.
And if you’re suffering from diabetes, animal research demonstrates that getting your daily onion fix may help control blood sugar levels in the body and prevent insulin resistance. Not too shabby.
This recipe is packed full of bone broth, my favorite food for healing leaky gut. It’s also exceptional at protecting joints and keeping skin looking young. Additionally, bone broth boosts the immune system naturally by reducing inflammation and helping the gut get in tip-top shape.
Lastly, the ghee gives the dish some healthy fats. You can also use butter instead, but ghee provides a more robust flavor.
History of Onion Soup
You may be surprised to find out that this delicious soup has a really lengthy history. Experts seem to agree that onion soup has been made and eaten since ancient Roman times! But wait, why is onion soup considered such a French classic today? That’s because the modern day version of onion soup, often called French onion soup, was introduced in 18th century Paris, France.
To this day, it’s easy to find onion soup on restaurant menus in Paris and other parts of France as well as around the entire world. It will likely be served in ramekins with gratinee (melted and slightly browned cheese on top) with baguette slices on the side.
How to Make French Onion Soup
So how do you make this French onion soup? It’s actually super easy. First, you’re going to make some caramelized onions. This is a really important step to any good onion soup because the caramelized onions are the rich and delicious star of the show. If you don’t caramelize the onions first, this soup would turn out to be really unimpressive to say the least.
Next, you’ll add in your chicken broth and beef broth. If you have chicken or beef stock on hand, those can work too. All that’s left to do now is add some seasoning, bring it to a boil and then allow for some cooking time so this onion soup can reach its ultimate rich and flavorful potential. Let’s get started.
To begin, in a large stockpot over medium heat, melt the ghee. Then add in the sliced onions. If you want, you can replace the ghee with grass-fed butter or avocado oil. While some onion soups contain olive oil, I don’t recommend substituting olive oil because it does not have a high heat threshold.
Cook the onions until they’re lightly caramelized, then add in the broths and garlic. Add salt and pepper and try a sip so you can adjust to taste.
Then crank up the heat so the mixture boils. Once it’s bubbling, reduce the temperature and let the onion soup simmer for 30–35 minutes. The longer it simmers, the more flavor you’ll be rewarded with. In fact, you could even turn this into a slow cooker recipe.
When the soup is ready, ladle it out into bowls or mugs. You can add shredded goat cheddar cheese to top off your soup if desired.
Serve this classic French onion soup recipe hot … and enjoy!
PrintFrench Onion Soup Recipe
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
There’s no better or easier soup than this onion soup recipe. You’ve likely had French onion soup but that can unnecessarily rich. Here you can enjoy a homemade, healthy onion soup whenever the mood strikes.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons ghee
- 4 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 cups chicken bone broth
- 2 cups beef bone broth
- 5 garlic cloves, chopped
- shredded goat cheddar cheese, for topping (optional)
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a stock pot over medium heat, melt ghee and thinly sliced onions.
- Cook onions until lightly caramelized.
- Add bone broth and garlic.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 30–50 minutes (the longer, the more flavor).
- Serve into bowls or cups, then top with goat cheese and season with salt and pepper.
Notes
As the video shows, you can also make this recipe is a slow cooker. First, caramelize the onions in a frying pan before adding to the slow cooker.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 40
- Category: Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Soups
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bowl
- Calories: 223
- Sugar: 3.7g
- Sodium: 542mg
- Fat: 11.6g
- Trans Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 9.3g
- Fiber: 1.5g
- Protein: 16.8g
- Cholesterol: 18mg
Keywords: onion soup recipe
Onion soup can also be good with miso and ginger
Ohhh that does sound delicious
Sounds great 👍🏼
Thank you 😊
Thank you. Please send me the receipts. Live in the Netherlands ⚘🌺😉👍
Great!!
Holy Molly!!! Onion soup will always make my list pf irresistible and you did justice to this recipe. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Hi there Dr. Axe
How about doing this in the instant pot?
Will it turn out the same?
Do you have suggestions on how long?
I cant wait to try this!!😁
Yes, you certainly can use an Instant Pot for this. Saute onions until them carmelize and then add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cover and seal. Set to 20 minutes.
Approx how many cups of onions is 4 large onions? Onion sizes vary so much…
for the calorie count, what is considered one serving? one cup?
I love onion soup… Can I lower the carbs if I only eat the broth and not the onion? I’m not a fan of eating the onion, just the broth.
You can puree the soup with a blender if you don’t like eating the pieces of onion.
Greetings. This is a GREAT recipe! I used butter instead of ghee. I also added about 1/4 Parmesan cheese to the broth for added flavor. I made the recipe for its broth benefits and did not worry about the limited presence of dairy. Make the soup people. It’s not labor intensive and provides a great limited calorie food if you’re watching your weight.
Using ghee instead of butter also keeps this quick soup dairy-free.”
Ghee is still dairy! No one can guarantee that there is no milk protein left in it. So if someone is allergic to dairy, better leave ghee out and use coconut oil!
Just added this to my list to make for next week!
So glad you like the recipe.
Ok to freeze?
I can’t wait to make it.
OMG…just so good..thanks Dr.Axe…Your soup which became my soup .. delicious .. I do it whit a little beat cheese and one slice of with bread in germs … she is my avorite .. for a long time am looked for Onion soupe…and this one has my taste thank you
Please define what is, “bread in germs” ? Your written accent is charming!! Did you mean “bread crumbs”??
like simple recipes that naturally heal my body and more energy
is there a way of making it without the Animal Broth?
Vegetable broth.
genius
I don’t think you can count the protein in bone broth cause it’s not complete protein?