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Dark Stout & Caramelized Onion Soup

As the weather turns colder and the winter months begin to set in, stout beer is a welcome addition to any cold night. While the beer is obviously great for drinking, stout is also amazing when used as an ingredient in this dark stout & caramelized onion soup. It’s as if a cheesy French onion soup and a dark stout beer had a baby.
The recipe below provides about 8 appetizer-sized portions.

Ingredients

  • 6 Tbsp salted butter
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 4 large white onions, cut in 1/8” slices
  • 1 bottle dark stout beer of choice
  • 6 cups high quality beef stock
  • 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
  • 6 sprigs thyme
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp sherry vinegar
  • Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 3 Tbsp salted butter, softened, to spread on bread before toasting
  • 8 thinly sliced (1/4” thick) French bread slices
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled, raw, to rub on the toasted bread slices
  • ¾ cup shredded gruyere cheese
  • ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 2 Tbsp fresh chives, finely-sliced, as garnish

Instructions

  • Heat 6 Tbsp salted butter in a large soup pot with the 2 Tbsp olive oil.
  • Add the sliced white onions, and cook, stirring occasionally so the onions on the bottom don’t burn and the onions cook consistency.
  • *You want the onions to slowly turn golden-brown together. Avoid overcooking individual onions to the point where they turn too dark, as the flavor of the soup will become too bitter. If you leave stray individual slices of onions sticking to the sides of the pot by themselves, these will likely burn before the rest of your onions are golden-brown.
  • When the onions are beautiful and caramelized, add the bottle of dark stout beer and 6 cups of beef stock to the pot, and bring to a simmer.
  • Add the white granulated sugar, bay leaves, and peeled whole garlic cloves.
  • Add the thyme sprigs, rosemary sprigs, Worcestershire sauce, and sherry vinegar, and cook on medium-low heat for roughly 30-45 minutes.
  • Taste, and season with kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper.
  • While the soup is simmering, whisk in the all-purpose flour and make sure there are no lumps.
  • Continue to cook the soup for an additional 30 minutes.
  • While the soup is cooking, preheat oven to 450F.
  • Spread some softened salted butter on both sides of the thinly-sliced French bread slices.
  • Bake the buttered bread slices on parchment paper on a sheet tray in the oven for about 6 minutes, flipping after 3 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven when the bread slices are very lightly toasted and barely golden in color on the outsides.
  • Gently rub 1 raw clove of peeled garlic onto the outsides of the toasted bread slices.
  • Remove the bay leaves from the soup.
  • Pour soup into oven-safe individual casserole dishes.
  • Sprinkle the entire soup surface with a mixture of the shredded cheeses, and add a piece of the toasted bread from earlier. Top each slice of toasted bread with another thin layer of the shredded cheese mixture.
  • Bake in the oven at 450F for an additional 5-7 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly.
  • Carefully remove from the oven, and allow individual soups to cool down for a minute or two.
  • *These soup bowls are going to be incredibly hot coming out of the oven here, so be really careful.
  • When ready, top each bowl with fresh chives and serve hot.

Notes

This soup tastes even better the day after it is first made.
When choosing a stout beer, use whatever you like! For a dish like this, I want something that has some real body, along with deep flavor. Anderson Valley’s Oatmeal Stout is an incredible product that works well here. It would also be fun to try with a milk stout, which is traditionally made with some milk sugar. An oyster stout would be really fun to try here…