French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties

French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties (aka mini grilled cheese!)

French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties (aka mini grilled cheese!)

The recipe is from a newly released cookbook called Three Sisters Bake. It’s a beautifully shot book with 90+ comforting yet innovative recipes, all of which look pretty simple to make. There’s even a whole chapter on salads which I’m looking forward to taking advantage of later on in the year!

The book was written by three sisters who own and run a café in the Scottish countryside. I’m kind of dying to try out the tattie scone recipe next – a component of their most popular dish on the menu – it’s a mashed potato based griddle scone that you serve for brunch with poached eggs. Uh, yessss pleaseeee.

French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties (aka mini grilled cheese!)

It’s rich and packed with flavour from the caramelised onions, with a crispy, gooey side of Gruyère toasties – utter perfection.

French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties (aka mini grilled cheese!)

Notes

– This recipe comes from the Three Sisters Bake cookbook (found on page 76)
– I used wholegrain toast for the toastie because I’ve told you I’m obsessed with that bread before
– I used my favourite technique for caramelising onions (from the NY times) instead of the standard way, because it takes less time to cook them. You may need to caramelise them in two batches because of the sheer volume of onion in this recipe.

French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties (aka mini grilled cheese!)

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Ingredients

  • 6 white onions , , sliced very thinly (with a knife/mandoline/food processor)
  • 25 g (1 oz) salted butter
  • 4 garlic cloves , , minced
  • 350 ml (12 fl oz) red wine
  • 850 ml (1 1/2 pints) hot, good-quality beef stock
  • 30 ml (2 tbsp) brandy
  • 5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper , , to taste

For the Mini Gruyere Toasties:

  • 2 slices of white bread , (see notes)
  • a knob of butter , , for spreading + frying
  • 50 g (2 oz) Gruyère cheese, thickly sliced

Instructions

  • In a large, dry frying pan, sauté the onions on a medium heat until browned. Add the butter and continue to cook until they become a deep brown colour. Add the garlic and continue to stir for 3 minutes. Transfer the caramelised onions to a large heavy-based pan with the wine, hot stock, brandy and balsamic - heat on medium and bring to a simmer. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered.
  • Rinse and wipe the frying pan clean - now you can use it for the toasties!
  • Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place the Gruyère cheese slices on the non-buttered side of one of the slices. Make a sandwich by placing the other non-buttered side on-top of the cheese, leaving the two buttered sides of the bread facing out.
  • Fry the Gruyère sandwich for about 5 minutes over a medium-high heat in the frying pan, until the underside is golden. Flip and fry the other side. If the cheese hasn't melted, turn the heat down and continue to fry until the cheese starts to ooze out of the sandwich (being careful not to burn the bread).
  • Cut the crusts off of the Gruyère toastie then cut it diagonally into quarters.
  • Remove the soup from the heat, season to taste and ladle into heatproof bowls. Serve the Gruyère toasties warm with the soup.
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it went! Mention @izyhossack or tag #topwithcinnamon!

40 thoughts on “French Onion Soup with Mini Gruyère Toasties”

  1. onion soup and mini grilled cheeses is completely appropriate and delicious considering it was absolutely bloody freezing in london today!

    plus, you have literally managed to make a bowl of onions look on par with ryan gosling.

  2. I love this concept, but I’ve never seen it done quite so elegantly! And that has to be the deepest darkest onion soup I’ve ever laid eyes on. The red wine, brandy and balsamic vinegar just make my mouth water.

  3. Yum! This sounds great, and in Australia cold’s just starting to set in, so to me soup sounds just right 🙂

  4. Damn girl you are good! These pics are killing me and I love the gif! The recipe looks amazing, I MUST check this book out!

  5. Mmmm, I need some more hot soup like this in my life. I’ve never heard of the NYT method before, so this is pretty cool. Will try ASAP. Love the cute triangles of grilled cheese too.

    • I use the NYT method for caramelising onions ALL the time now – it works really well and cuts down on the cooking time a bunch 🙂 Let me know what you think if you get a chance to use the method yourself!

  6. This might sounds a wee bit indulgent but I make french onion soup at least once a month. Even though the seasons why change; my craving for soup never do. Also soup is always welcome if there is grilled cheese with it.

  7. It is still snowing here, so soup is a GOOG thing. Especially french onion with Gruyère Toasties. I mean, that is amazing!

  8. HAYYYYYY, it’s winter in ‘Frica! It’s still about 65ºF, but that’s about as soup weather-y as it gets here. Soup looks delicious! And you did a great job of making it look good, daaaang.

  9. I’m glad you did. It’s a great recipe! Plus you are very good at taking pictures. You soared with the challenge!!!!

  10. I am literally in the same weather confused state as you, only I’m adapting from my favourite summery clothes to warm clothes here in Australia. It sucks. But I did do something a little clever today, I bought a white midriff sweater/knit and I can totally pull of wearing my high waisted summer maxi skirts and still be warm/not look weather confused in Autumn. Win! The soup? Fabulous! It looks so amazingly comforting – only i can’t have alcohol, could you recommend any substitutions, or should I pass on this one?

    • That is such a clever plan!
      Thanks Mariam, I think you could probably just sub the alcohol for more beef stock 🙂

  11. Beautiful looking soup Izy! When I saw the book (didn’t see the title…) I thought you wrote it! By the way, when is your book coming out???
    The weather here has been crazy. Once I put my winter coat away, and start wearing short sleeves again the temperature drops below zero. Not kidding at all…

  12. I’m writing this from Minnesota (upper-mid United States, near Canada), where we had snow earlier this week. French onion soup is always ideal. And really, besides the feel of the dish being wrong, there’s never really a time when onions are “out” of season, since they store so well. I make a vegetarian version of it myself using beer and mustard stock, but I’ve never topped it with grilled cheese. Now I have something to ponder. Thanks! (And I love your gifs.)

  13. MINI GRILLED CHEESUS. I don’t care what season it is or isn’t, my mouth is always ready for a meal like this.

  14. why is everything so much better when it’s mini!! your photos are stunning, and have left me hungry 😉
    I’m going to check out that cookbook right now too…it looks gorgeous!

  15. Love the Gruyère toasts! That’s one of my favorite cheeses – what a great idea to turn them into miniature grilled cheeses and stash them on the side of a savory soup!

  16. Soup is ALWAYS seasonal hehe 😉 And oh my goodness french onion soup is so hard to take pics of, but yours are amazinggg. I’m pretty sure your photographs will always be amazing, though 🙂

  17. French onion soup is easily one of my all time favourite winter meals. This looks fantastic and as per usual- beautiful photos!

  18. Bam, it’s freakin freezing here in Australia so this is perrrrfect. Thank you! Oh & I saw this book for sale at my local pharmacy. All the way over here in Australia. How cool is that? x

  19. It’s great to have a good, simple recipe for French onion soup. I smiled at your ‘worry’ that this isn’t seasonally appropriate because I was thinking about making a chicken pie earlier but then started having doubts that it was ‘too wintery’! For what it’s worth, though, I think French onion soup could definitely be a spring and autumn dish, too. 😉

  20. I know what you mean about the winter coat thing! I’ve been adjusting to rummaging around in a backpack to find my essentials – so much easier to find in coat pockets!
    Your photos are so beautiful. It’s amazing how photogenic onions are.

    Also congratulations on getting editor’s choice! We photographed for Saveur the day after the winners were chosen and the assistant editor was marveling at how much you’ve done for your age with us. C:

  21. French onion soup brings me back to the first day of culinary school! This is gorgeous–and that cookbook looks stunning. Can’t wait to check it out.

  22. Book looks fab. Soup looks SO warm and comforting, and all round delicious – particularly the cheese toasties. And have pinned to my ‘Winter’ board – because winter will come back before we know it… Thanks for sharing Izy! 🙂

  23. Good gracious.. I feel like an old woman when I say that, but really there are no other words.. So beautifully shot as usual and that recipe and that toast.. Wow..

  24. Yummm. Not only have you managed to photograph soup perfectly, you’ve introduced me to mini grilled gruyere cheese toasties. I will be making those soon most definitely. Also, it’s pretty cold and rainy today – nothing wrong with sharing soup and toasties at this time of year!

  25. Looks scrumptious! I can’t believe how you make everything look so absolutely delectable! A challenge I wonder if I’ll ever conquer…

  26. I really love this recipe. How the toasties go on the side and this beautifully dark soup. As for the news on your best food blog = Congrats! I just discovered your blog recently an dI just love it. I did cast a vote on Top with Cinnamon.

  27. No matter the season, a classic french onion soup is a great idea in my book! I love your twist with the mini grilled cheeses.

  28. I need to make this soon. Can you (or anyone) tell me if it matters what kind of Red Wine I use? Sweet/dry Ect. I don’t want to mess this up. It sounds SO good:)

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