Juices from a cranberry pot roast give this rustic French Onion Soup a little bit of a tart tang, not in an overpowering way, though. It’s a gentle hint of cranberry that is absolutely perfect with the buttery sweet caramelized onions, beefy broth and melty cheese.
There is a prerequisite to this recipe that I’m pretty sure you’ll love just as much as the soup … I present to you: the beauty of a cranberry pot roast. Isn’t it stunning? My sister made this recipe for us for Christmas dinner this year and it was SO good! She used this recipe from Feasting at Home (with a few minor modifications). Here are my sister’s notes (that she sent via text message): “I doubled the recipe except the cranberries. Used Merlot, did not double or increase sugar, half the thyme, added 2 fresh rosemary sprigs.”
(BTW, this is not my photo: it is used with permission from Sylvia at Feasting at Home. Thanks, Sylvia, for both the striking photo AND the amazing recipe!)
The roast was perfect and so festive for a holiday meal. Everyone loved it (including the kids … except for my own exceptionally picky son, but he found other things to eat). After dinner, when my sister was packing up the leftover meat, I looked at the gorgeous red brown juices and a brilliant thought struck me. Those juices would be amazing in a French Onion soup. I said so to to my sister, so she poured some of the cranberry pot roast juices into a mason jar for me to take home with me.
I came home and relatively soon thereafter made the lovely soup and reveled in the robust flavors. This takes French Onion Soup to a whole new level! It took me quite a while to take photos of the soup and even longer to get around to blogging it, though, so I hope you don’t hate me if there aren’t any cranberries left in the store. I hope you tucked some cranberries away in your freezer just in case you had the need to make a cranberry pot roast and some cranberry French onion soup in February.
If not … and now that I’ve enticed you with cranberry French onion soup, I’ve got some more great onion soup recipes below …
That roast, though. I sort of wish I’d stashed away some cranberries to make it again. I thought I had some cranberries in my freezer, but I can’t find them. I’m sure come summer, I’ll stumble across them when I’m rummaging through the freezer and then maybe I’ll make the pot roast myself (and then save the photos until there are cranberries showing up at the store again so you don’t TOTALLY hate me)–maybe. Until then, I totally trust that Sylvia’s got you covered with her recipe. If you can get your hands on some cranberries, go make the roast and make sure you save the juices afterwards so you can make yourself some really lovely soup.
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Cranberry French Onion Soup
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 large onions, peeled
- 4 teaspoons of grass fed butter
- 1/4 cup dry red wine
- 2 cups juices from a cranberry pot roast
- 2 cups beef stock (or water/boullion)
- A sprig of fresh rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- salt to taste
- 4 very thin slices of whole wheat french bread
- 2 cups grated swiss, provolone, white cheddar or mozzarella cheese (or a mix of cheeses)
Instructions
- Slice the onions very thin. Melt the butter in a saucepan or heavy skillet and cook, covered, over low heat until the onions are soft and tender.
- Uncover and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the onions brown lightly, 15 – 20 minutes.
- Add wine and cook until wine is almost absorbed. (This happens quite quickly.)
- Add the cranberry pot roast juice, beef stock, rosemary and pepper and let simmer for 5 minutes. Taste the broth and add salt (or beef boullion) to taste. When done, remove the rosemary.
- Meanwhile, slice the bread very thinly and toast or bake in 300 degree oven for 5 minutes.
- Pour the steaming hot soup into 4 oven-proof bowls, top each with a slice of bread, then sprinkle with a generous amount of shredded cheese.
- Bake the soup bowls at 350 degrees for 15 – 30 minutes or until the cheese is all melted and bubbly. Serve immediately.
Notes
Make a cranberry pot roast first (recipe here) and then save 2 cups of the juices to make this soup. (Alternately you could cook some cranberries in beef broth for a bit then remove the cranberries, but it won’t be as good.)
If you don’t have 2 cups of juice from the pot roast, make up the difference with additional beef stock to get 4 total cups of juices/stock.
RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/
© Copyright 2019, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
Nutrition analysis calculated with whole wheat bread and part-skim mozzarella cheese. There wasn’t a way to tell the nutrition analyzer about the cranberries in the broth so I’m sure there are more nutrients hidden in this soup than what you see here. Also, if you are watching your sodium, you can reduce the sodium by making your own beef stock with less salt or substitute a low sodium stock.
Looking for more onion soup recipes?
Onion soup is one of my faves, so I’ve made all the versions of it I can find!
- French Onion Soup MTM – Mary Tyler Moore’s recipe for French Onion Soup
- Carabaccia – Italian Onion Soup, made with red wine and enticing spices that pull you into the bowl
- Zwiebelsuppe – German Onion Soup, the light cousin of French Onion Soup, made with chicken broth and white wine
- Dark & Smoky Gouda Onion Soup – one of my own creative takes on Onion Soup
BTW, I have just stumbled across another version of onion soup that I totally HAVE to make … stay tuned!
