I would like to make French Onion soup and wondered if anyone out there had an easy, healthy, tried and tested version of the recipe to share

Slice a large number of onions. Melt some butter in a large pan and add the onions. Cover and sweat the onions at a gentle heat until soft. Then turn the heat up and cook the onions till quite a deep colour. Keep stirring so they don't burn. Add some flour (1 or 2 tbs) and stir for a few mins. Add some white wine and stir . Then add chicken stock and simmer for at least 20 mins. Check the seasoning and serve. It takes some effort but is worth it.

Never cover pan, long slow cooking until onions soft and brown much better than high heat cooking. Can be up to an hour or more but slowly slowly. Add a little brown sugar to help caramilization. No flour, no no. Always use strong beef stock unless vegitarian. A little sherry or brandy helps. Serve with some grated Gruyere cheese toasted on french bread and soup poured over. No effort and delicious.

I'm sorry but every recipe I have for French Onion Soup uses some flour as a thickening agent . The sweating with the lid on helps speed up to a small extent what can be a long drawn out process. I nearly put at the end of my recipe that one should NOT follow tradition and serve toasted cheese on French bread because I have always found this difficult to eat armed just with a spoon and I have nearly always ended up burning my lip on white-hot ,sticky melted cheese.

French Onion soup should be thick with onions not with flour, that it onion gravy to me. Sweating the onions by covering them to start with will in reality slow down the the process by keeping moisture in and also running the risk of retaining the sulphuric acid, which can make the soup bitter. A long, slow, uncovered cook is best all round.

For me, the melted cheese croutons finishes this and makes the dish a meal, substantial, warming, delicious. Try using a spoon and a fork Braces, the cheese and bread, if the soup is poured over and allowed to soak for a minute or two, will pull apart and be wonderul. Or you could seve it on the side and dunk!

I agree there must be plenty of onions but the flour gives a degree of thickness to the liquid part and by this I don't mean overthick like gravy. And, I repeat , every recipe I have (10) uses some flour. I'm sure there are hundreds that don't but all the ones I have do. As for the cheese on toast , each to their own, Mrs Braces and I both dislike it however you eat it.

This is really important. I just made french onion soup and I put beer in it . A nice lager, because I love the flavor of the hops and such in the soup, it gives it a really nice tang. The only thing is that my son and I put too much beer in it and it turned out bitter. But still really good. I need to get rid of the bitter taste. Does anyone know anything that counteracts bitter?