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Even when it is insanely hot outside, I sometimes have the biggest craving for French Dip sandwiches and Onion soup. This is a really good food storage recipe and very simple to make.
The secret behind a good Onion soup is how you cook the onions. Take about four medium onions and slice them really thin and put them in a large saucepan and sauté them in olive oil until golden. This takes about eight to ten minutes. If you want to take a little bit more time, about 15-20 minutes, then turn the pan down and sweat the onions until the sugars in them (yes, onions have sugar) start to caramelize. It is heaven, if I didn’t want the onion soup so bad because I’m craving French Dip sandwiches, I would stop right there and just eat the onions.
Now sprinkle about two tablespoons of flour over the onions and add a pinch or two of sugar. Cook a little bit longer in order to get the flour mixed in with the onions and melt the sugar. Make sure to stir constantly. Turn the heat up a little bit and add about five cups of beef broth, ½ teaspoon of thyme, a bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Take the bay leaf out before serving. This is the best recipe. My husband first made this for me as a surprise. He took the basic recipe from the Lion House cookbook, and I just love it.
Another thing that I like about onion soup is that you can use your food storage to make it. Instead of using fresh onions, re-hydrate dry onion flakes, about four to five teaspoons, and then sauté’ them in a little bit of olive oil; at the end add the flour and cook a little bit longer. Add about five cups of water and enough beef bouillon to flavor the soup, and add the rest of the spices. If you want to add more flavor, just add a little bit of butter to the soup just before serving.
Of course, you can always make the soup even faster by just opening a packet of onion soup mix and adding water, but if you are going to do that you will need to have the soup mix in your food storage. Actually, that would be a really good idea because you can use the dry soup mix for a variety of different recipes, including flavored hamburgers, crock pot roasts – with incredible gravy, chip dip, and a variety of other things.
Now when it comes to eating the French Dip sandwiches you can do several things. The authentic French Dip is a buttered stale French roll with sliced beef inside. What a wonderful way to use leftovers. If you don’t have stale bread or an old roast to cut up, don’t worry, just toast some bread, butter it and start dipping. You can also break the bread up, just like bread and milk, and eat it that way. I am going to have to turn the air-conditioning down so that I can satisfy my craving and eat soup.
Dawn