18 Ingredients To Upgrade Your French Onion Soup

When the weather is cold and blustery, and you're looking for an (edible) way to stay warm, there's nothing like a steaming hot bowl of soup. There are many different types of soup you can choose from, of course, but none seem better for the winter months than French onion soup, with its lusciously soft onions and deep, rich broth. Getting it at a restaurant is great, but it's even more enjoyable when you make it at home, slowly spooning it into your mouth as you watch snowflakes fall on a frigid landscape.

It does take some time to prepare, but it's not particularly difficult to make if you know what you're doing. But why settle for an average, everyday French onion soup recipe when you could upgrade the classic into something really incredible? With just an addition or two, you could make the best French onion soup you've ever had in your life. Include the following ingredients in your next French onion soup recipe, and you'll see how delicious this warm bowl of comfort can really be with a few tweaks.

French onion soup contains, of course, onions — generally, as this French onion soup recipe calls for, white onions. But why starve yourself of the variety of different alliums out there by choosing only one type of onion to work with? You can, of course, use other types of onions similar to the white variety. For example, Vidalia onions make a delicious addition to this soup. But if you really want to upgrade the flavor of your French onion soup, consider including some shallots in the onion mixture.

So, what's the difference between shallots and onions? Shallots tend not to taste quite as strong as onions. Instead of offering a punch of pungency, they have a subtler flavor profile that can add nuance to your soup. They also cook down more easily than onions, helping you to achieve that velvety richness in your soup. Depending on where you're buying them, they can be pricier than onions, but we think it's worth the splurge to give your soup some added complexity.

Have you ever had a bowl of French onion soup only to realize that the flavor fell kind of flat? That can happen when there's not enough complexity in the dish. There are a few different ways to remedy this problem, and one of them is to vary the type of broth you're using in your soup. Check out most French onion soup recipes, and you'll see that they call for beef broth. This is largely what gives the soup its intensity and somewhat heavy flavor.

But you don't have to stop at the beef broth if you want to make things more interesting. By adding some chicken broth and water into the mix, you get a finished broth that provides more complexity and isn't quite as heavy as beef-only soup. This helps to give your French onion soup the best possible flavor.

We trust Ina Garten with our lives in the kitchen, so if she makes a cooking suggestion, we tend to follow it. She has one tip for creating a more delicious French onion soup, and we're absolutely here for it. She suggests adding one flavorful vegetable to the mix that can alter both the flavor and texture of the finished recipe, all for the better. That one vegetable is fennel, and you can include it in your next French onion soup, too.

She says that fennel adds a layer of sweetness to the soup, which works well with all of the other intensely savory ingredients you'll include. You can cook them alongside the onions to allow them to soften properly, then continue making your soup as you normally would. You may never go back to fennel-less French onion soup again.

With many French recipes, adding a splash of wine is suggested to add acidity or other elements of deliciousness to the finished dish. But you may be wondering whether red or white wine is better in French onion soup. Although red may seem like the obvious answer in light of the inclusion of beef broth, it turns out that you can use both red and white to add some additional flavor to your soup.

If you do choose to use red wine, you may want to opt for something like a merlot. Cabernet sauvignon's bold tannins can add some bitterness to the dish, which isn't desirable. On the white front, you have plenty of options, ranging from dry sherry to sauvignon blanc, the latter of white Alton Brown swears by.

French onion soup is known for its richness, its full-bodied quality, and yes, its fattiness. The addition of fat, often in the form of butter, is there for texture, of course, but it also contributes quite a bit to the flavor of the finished dish. But you don't have to stick to butter and butter alone to add a lovely richness to the soup. For a unique twist to add lots of flavor to French onion soup, consider using duck fat.

You can make duck fat at home by rendering fat from actual duck meat, or you can buy a jar of the stuff online. Add it to the recipe either in place of the butter you're using to caramelize your onions, or use a 1:1 ratio of both butter and duck fat. Either way, you're in for a delicious treat.

Yes, we love French onion soup, but if you ask us, despite its heaviness, it's not really a main course. Rather, it's something you enjoy a small bowl of before getting to the main part of your meal. But by adding an additional element to the dish, you can transform it from a starter into a hearty, filling entree. One element that makes for a delicious accompaniment to French onion soup? Mashed potatoes, of course.

Mashed potatoes are like a blank canvas food — you can add about any flavor to them to make them taste good. So, naturally, they're going to work well with flavor-packed French onion soup. Stir some mashed potatoes into the soup, or use the soup as a sort of gravy for the potatoes. Either way, it's the epitome of comfort food.

Check out most French onion soup recipes, and you'll see that it calls for Gruyère. So, then, what do you do if you can't find any Gruyère at your local grocery store (or you're just feeling too lazy to go out and get some)? Well, luckily, there's a three-cheese substitute we turn to when we're still craving that savory, cheesy goodness.

If you're trying to capture a Gruyère-like texture and flavor profile, start off with mozzarella cheese, or opt for provolone if you can't find mozzarella. Add some fontina and Swiss cheeses to the mix, and you have a Gruyère-like cheese that's sure to please. Not only does this make a good substitute for Gruyère, but it brings a layer of creaminess and complexity to the dish that one cheese alone could not accomplish.

There are several important components in a good French onion soup. First is the bottom layer of rich and deeply savory, onion-packed broth. On top, you'll find the creamy, stringy cheese that provides a nice dairy counterpart to all that soup. But in between those two layers is an equally important element: the bread. These toasted pieces of bread add a chewiness and sometimes even crunchiness to the dish, which is a major texture upgrade.

But if you want to play up those savory, fatty notes even more, you can swap the bread for some pork rinds. They're a great hack for making bland French onion soup more flavorful, and they add a crispy textural element that you won't even get from bread. Who knew such an easy swap could be so delicious?

When it comes to making French onion soup, you want to make sure you're using the right kind of bread. After all, some types of bread will perform much better than others. A baguette, for example, is the traditional choice, and you may see French onion soups call for this kind of bread specifically. If you ask us, you can stray from a baguette specifically, but you'll still want to find a type of bread with the right structure.

Ciabatta may be one of your best bets. It has lots of air pockets in it, which gives it that chewy texture that you expect from a baguette. Plus, it slowly soaks up the broth in your soup, rendering it more flavorful the longer it sits in the liquid.

Don't feel like your French onion soup is filling enough? Well, you can always add some extra carbs to make things more filling. We've already talked about some of the easiest carb-y additions you can make to your bowl of French onion soup, but one of the absolute best is gnocchi, those Italian potato dumplings that offer a bouncy, chewy texture. Since they don't have a lot of flavor themselves, they really allow the French onion soup to shine, which infuses them with flavor in turn.

You can add just a few individual gnocchi to your soup if you're just looking for a bit more bulk to the meal, or you can make gnocchi the star of the show and utilize the French onion soup as a kind of broth. Either way, this hack is sure to take your French onion soup up a notch.

There are a few flavorful pantry staples that we always recommend you have on hand, and Worcestershire sauce is one of them. With its salty and umami flavor profile, it can add a punch of flavor to basically anything it touches, and French onion soup is no exception. In fact, it's an ingredient that Ludo Lefebvre uses to transform his French onion soup into something seriously special.

Worcestershire sauce has a sort of beefy flavor to it, so adding it to your French onion soup helps play up those lovely meaty notes. Lefebvre suggests adding it to the broth after it's been boiling for about 30 minutes — not right as you're making the broth — for the best possible results. Give it a try the next time you make homemade French onion soup.

Don't happen to have any bread on hand to make French onion soup? Or maybe you're just looking for an alternative carb source — perhaps with a more interesting textural touch? In that case, you can swap out the bread for some puff pastry instead. By adding puff pastry to the top of the soup, you're creating a sort of crispy shell for the brothy deliciousness that lies inside.

For the best results here, you're not going to want to go light on the cheese. First, start by ladling the soup into the dish you're going to bake and serve it in. Then, add a layer of cheese. Put the puff pastry on top, then add even more cheese to enhance that crispiness even more. Once you try French onion soup en croute, you may never want to go back to the traditional version again.

French onion soup is an indulgent dish, of course, but perhaps the one thing that could make it even more indulgent is combining it with pasta. Yes, it's possible to make a cheesy French onion soup pasta casserole, and it may just be the best thing you ever make in your kitchen. This recipe has it all: the chewy al dente pasta, the sweet caramelized onion, the rich, umami flavor of the soup broth, all in one delicious casserole.

That pasta plays an important role in the dish both by adding an unexpected textural element and by bulking up a typical French onion soup, transforming it from a starter into a main. Make this recipe yourself, or just try combining pasta with your favorite French onion soup recipe you already make.

Whether you're making that iconic cheesy French onion soup pasta casserole recipe or you're just looking for a simple way to bulk up your French onion soup, there's one easy, high-protein addition you can easily add to the mix: beef. You're already using beef broth so that rich, meaty, beefy flavor is already very much present in a typical French onion soup. By adding actual beef to the mix, you can play up that flavor even more while turning this soup into more of an entree than an appetizer.

We love using ground beef in our French onion soup because it's just so easy to incorporate into the dish. Brown the meat while you're caramelizing your onions, then bring everything to a boil when you're ready to add the broth.

Of course, maybe you don't happen to have beef on hand, or perhaps you're looking for a protein-rich addition that's just a bit lighter than ground beef. No worries — there are other options for you out there. In fact, did you know you could add chicken to your French onion soup? Is it traditional? No, of course not. But we don't always have to adhere to tradition when we don't want to. Adding shredded chicken to your French onion soup is easy since it's already cooked when you add it to the other ingredients, and that chicken starts to take on the umami, meaty flavors of the broth.

You can make your chicken from scratch specifically for this dish if you have the time. Alternatively, you can always just shred up some rotisserie chicken for a quick and easy upgrade to this delicious soup.

If you've ever taken a spoonful of French onion soup, brought it to your lips, and thought it might have tasted better if there were a smoky element in the mix, then you might want to consider adding poblano peppers to your soup the next time you make it. This is another not-so-conventional ingredient addition that just makes a lot of sense — especially if you're someone who likes some spice.

Poblano peppers can have some heat to them, which is why they do such a good job of improving the flavor of basic French onion soup. Sometimes, French onion soup can be a bit bland, since there's a lot of fattiness without much to break up those flavors. Poblanos do just that, all while adding a lovely smokiness to the recipe.

You already know that you should consider adding wine to your French onion soup, but you don't have to stop there. Brandy, a grape-based distilled spirit, is a great way to enhance the flavor of your French onion soup. Think about how you feel after you take a sip of brandy. It has a warming, comforting effect that's especially nice in the winter months — a quality that brandy happens to share with French onion soup. This is one of the reasons why they pair so well together.

Additionally, adding in that splash of brandy helps to highlight all of the other flavors you're working with, like the sweet caramelized onions and the beefy broth. Of course, you don't have to include any alcohol in your French onion soup recipe. But if you do want to include some — and you want to switch it up — try stirring in some brandy.

You may think of fish sauce as an ingredient that's used primarily in Asian recipes. But we're here to tell you that this ingredient is incredibly versatile and can be used in a variety of cuisines. French cuisine is not an exception, particularly when it comes to French onion soup — it's a secret ingredient that can give your soup an incredible boost of flavor.

Because fish sauce is known for adding an umami quality to dishes, it's perfect for French onion soup, which relies on that umami to keep things from getting too bland. It also adds complexity, which can make your French onion soup a bit more interesting, instead of falling flat on the flavor front. Just be sure to add the sauce sparingly and taste as you go, particularly if you don't have a lot of experience using the ingredient.