Meals · Soups & stews

French onion soup

Name: French onion soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 85 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 4 tbsp butter; 5 large yellow onions, thinly sliced; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp granulated sugar; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 tbsp all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup white wine; 5 cups beef broth; 1/2 tsp dried thyme; 8 slices French bread, toasted; 1 1/3 cups Swiss cheese, grated

An hour of caramelized onions in beef broth under a raft of toasted bread and molten cheese. The bistro's slowest, cheapest, most beloved trick.

Time: 85 min (15 prep + 70 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 517 kcal
Protein: 21 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

4 tbsp butter55 g
5 large yellow onions, thinly sliced900 g
1 tsp salt5 g
1 tsp granulated sugar4 g
2 cloves garlic, minced8 g
2 tbsp all-purpose flour15 g
1/2 cup white wine120 g
5 cups beef broth1200 g
1/2 tsp dried thyme1 g

Topping

8 slices French bread, toasted160 g
1 1/3 cups Swiss cheese, grated160 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Cook the onions in the butter with the salt and sugar over medium-low for 45–55 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mahogany. There is no shortcut; high heat makes burnt, not caramelized.
Garlic and flour for a minute, then the wine, scraping the pot's brown floor up.
Broth and thyme; simmer 15 minutes and season.
Ladle into oven-safe bowls, float the toasts, bury in cheese, and broil until brown-blistered. Warn people about the bowls.

No oven-safe bowls?

Broil the cheese onto the toasts on a sheet pan and float them after. You lose the molten cheese curtain down the bowl's side, but the spoon can't tell the difference.

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

17% of kcal

76% water

10 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2066 kcal goes into the pot, 2628 g of ingredients comes out as ~1600 g of food → 129 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 129
Protein: (17%); 5 g
Fat: (46%); 6 g
Carbohydrates: (37%); 12 g
of which sugar: 4 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 502 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More meals

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.