Sweet Onion Soup w/ Blue Cheese Toasts

With the temperatures starting to go down here I decided to try out a bunch of soup/stew recipes from a book called Soup of the Day (Williams-Sonoma): 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year by Kate McMillan. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the book for review and this was the first recipe I tried from the book. I made soup just about every day for a week straight and all the recipes were delicious. The sweetness from onions, balsamic vinegar and then the wine balanced out perfectly with the pungent blue cheese. This is in a class of it's own. Not the kind of onion soup my dad used to make with beef, croutons and mozzarella cheese. If you want to impress someone without breaking the bank, this is definitely a good recipe to use. It can easily be doubled or tripled.

This recipe was really easy to make. Just put ingredients in in layers and let it do it's thing. You could always slice all your onions in advance to save some time and then have them ready to go the day you plan to make the soup. I ate the onions 30 minutes in and could have taken a fork to them they were so sweet and buttery... fast forward another 30 minutes and they were insanely good. I must admit that I probably ate half of the soup while it was cooking.

Serves 4-6

• 2 TBSP unsalted butter/margarine
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 4 sweet onions, like Vidalia or Maui, thinly sliced
• 1 TBSP balsamic vinegar
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. dry white wine
• 3 c. chicken broth or vegetable broth (for vegetarian version)
• salt and pepper

For the blue cheese toasts

• 1 baguette cut into 8-12 thin slices
• 3 oz. of blue cheese, crumbled

1. In a large heavy pot, melt the butter with the olive oil over high heat. Add the onions and saute until they begin to soften, 5-7 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue to stir occasionally for 30 minutes.
2. Add the vinegar, stir to combine, and cook, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. 
3. Stir in the garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. 
4. Add the broth raise the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
5. Puree half of the soup via blender or immersion blender. Return to the pot and season with salt and pepper.
6. Meanwhile to make the toasts: Preheat the broiler to high. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and cover each with blue cheese. Place under the broiler until the cheese has melted and the toasts are toasted, about 1-2 minutes. 
7. Serve, topping each bowl of soup with 2 or 3 toasts.

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Just Another Meatless Monday

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