French Onion Soup Recipe - Instant Pot or Stovetop

This easy Instant Pot (or stovetop) French Onion Soup is ready in around 30 minutes instead of the usual 1 to 1.5 hours! Onions are pressure cooked with butter, olive oil and brandy, then simmered with beef stock. Finish each bowl with toasted baguette slices and melted Gruyere cheese under the grill.

About This French Onion Soup Recipe

Onions are cooked in butter, olive oil and brandy until caramelised and glazed and then combined with beef stock. It's topped with gratinéed baguette toasts with shredded Gruyere cheese and then broiled under the grill to finish!

French Onion Soup is usually a real labour of love and takes anywhere from 1 - 1.5 hours to make. But I'll share a version that speeds things up a bit using the Instant Pot but more importantly, makes this a lot more hands off in the crucial caramelising onion stage.

I saw this French Onion Soup recipe on my longtime Canadian friend Eva's wonderful blog Kitchen Inspirations and I knew that I had to make it myself because I love French Onion Soup but I don't usually have the time to make it. And this turned out even better than I could have imagined. Thanks Eva! x

Video How To Make French Onion Soup Recipe

Ingredients For French Onion Soup

Onions - Yellow or brown onions are traditionally used in French onion soup. Look for medium sized onions, around 150g/5oz each.

Butter - Salted butter (you know me right?) ;)

Oil - Extra virgin olive oil.

Alcohol - Brandy, red wine, white wine, calvados or dry sherry can be used. If you want to make this non alcoholic, replace with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and more beef stock to make up the liquid quantity.

Bay leaves - Fresh or dried bay leaves to add aroma to the soup.

Garlic cloves - Fresh garlic cloves, crushed so that they melt into the stock easier.

Beef stock - Use real liquid ready-to-use beef stock (homemade or bought) and not stock made from stock cubes for this. Stock cubes add a strong punch of flavour but are overpowering for this soup and make it excessively salty.

Brown sugar - To balance the soup's flavour. White sugar can also be used.

Baguette - A 160g/5.6oz half baguette is perfect for a 4 person serve. Make your own baguettes using this 60 minute baguette recipe!

Gruyere cheese - Traditionally Gruyère, Comté or Emmental cheese are used in French Onion Soup. These cheeses have a nutty, slightly sweet flavour profile especially when young (aka not aged). Jarlsberg and Provolone are more budget friendly options, Provolone with a milder flavour.

Love French Onion Soup? Try this French onion mac and cheese or French Onion Tarte Tatin! Or if you love French soups this cream of garlic soup is tasty and full of goodness too.

French Onion Soup Recipe

Adapted from Kitchen Inspirations

Recipe Overview

Preparation time (both methods): 8 minutes

Cooking time (Instant Pot): around 30 minutes

Cooking time (stovetop): around 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients Needed

For Soup

• 4 yellow/brown medium onions (around 600g/1.3lb trimmed weight total)
• 60g/2oz butter
• 2 tablespoons/30ml/1oz extra virgin olive oil
• 60ml/2oz brandy, white or red wine
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 litre/1 quart real liquid beef stock (not from stock cubes)
• 2-3 teaspoons brown sugar to taste
• Salt and pepper

For Croutons

• 8 slices baguette (two per bowl)
• 120g/4oz Gruyere cheese

Step-By-Step Instructions

INSTANT POT DIRECTIONS

Step 1 ONIONS- Peel the onions (4 medium onions, around 600g/1.3lb trimmed weight total) and trim ends off. Mandolin onions on the finest setting and add to the instant pot. Add the butter (60g/2oz), olive oil (2 tablespoons/30ml/1oz), brandy or red wine (60ml/2oz) and bay leaves (4 bay leaves). Place lid on and set to pressure cook high for 15 minutes. Release pressure and remove the lid.

Step 2 PREP - While the pressure cooker is cooking, toast the baguette slices (8 slices, two per bowl) and grate the Gruyere cheese (120g/4oz).

Step 3 SOUP- Set the instant pot to 10 minutes saute. Add in the garlic (2 cloves) and saute the garlic and onions and allow to caramelise further, around 4-5 minutes scraping the fond on the base. Add in beef stock (1 litre/1 quart) and bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add sugar (2-3 teaspoons, to taste) and season with salt and pepper.

Step 4 SERVE - Divide into oven proof bowls and place some grated cheese on top of the soup. Then add two toasts on top of each and then sprinkle extra cheese on top. Place under a hot grill to melt. Caution: the bowls and soup will be very hot!

STOVETOP DIRECTIONS

Step 1 ONIONS- Peel the onions (4 medium onions, around 600g/1.3lb trimmed weight total) and trim ends off. Mandolin onions on the finest setting. Add the butter (60g/2oz) and olive oil (2 tablespoons/30ml/1oz) to a pot and melt the butter on low to medium heat. Add the onions and allow to caramelise and soften for 40 minutes uncovered. Add brandy or red wine (60ml/2oz) and bay leaves (4 bay leaves) and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Step 2 PREP - While the onions are caramelising, toast the baguette slices (8 slices, two per bowl) and grate the Gruyere cheese (120g/4oz).

Step 3 SOUP- Add in the garlic (2 cloves) and saute the garlic and onions for a minute. Then add the beef broth (1 litre/1 quart) and bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add sugar (2-3 teaspoons, to taste) and season with salt and pepper.

Step 4 SERVE - Divide into oven proof bowls and place two toasts on top of each and then sprinkle cheese on top. Place under a hot grill to melt. Caution: the bowls and soup will be very hot!

Personal Note

Mr NQN is very funny about food. If it were up to him he would exist on fruit. I made a few batches of this before I came to a version that I loved. It was mainly because of the beef stock I was using. In the first batch I used beef stock cubes which were very strong in flavour and way too strong for a balanced soup. So I remade it using real beef stock and it was divine. I tried it in the instant pot and then on the stovetop just to make sure it worked in both.

Mr NQN had just eaten three pieces of pizza for lunch but I wanted him to taste it to see what he thought. I handed him a bowl of the soup and asked him to taste it and asked him if it was better than the first soup. He nodded. And instead of handing me back the bowl he put it down on his table.

I went to the kitchen to turn off the grill and came back to take the bowl only to see that he was enthusiastically slurping on the soup and that within a minute it was all gone! And then he bestowed his ultimate compliment for a non fruit meal. "I like that. A lot!" he said.

So tell me Dear Reader, are there dishes that you love to eat but don't make often because they take too long?