This is not your normal boring French onion soup. This recipe is bristling with flavor! I mean, beer AND bacon?! Really? Take my money! When I spy onion soup on a menu I almost always order it, because I’m intrigued how others put their spin on it. I’m often underwhelmed by the broth, so I wanted to come up with a version that has some real zing to it.

Angie and I tag team this recipe. I do the ground work and get the onions and broth ready, then tag her in to prepare the bread and finish the bowls in the oven. Cooking together is awesome, but we have a tiny kitchen with only room for one wielding a knife or something hot. Safety first! But if you and your boo can cook this together, go for it! Beer in the French onion soup with bacon flavored French kisses? Sounds like a start to a romantic evening to me…….!

Here’s what I consider the hard part to this soup: serving it so the cheese is melted before the bread absorbs the soup and loses its crunch. If there’s one thing that will ruin onion soup it’s soggy bread. If you don’t get it right the first time, don’t give up. Tweak the timing a little bit or use crustier bread but I hope the steps I describe in the recipe below prevent your bread from getting soggy. I want this to be a slam dunk on your first try!

I think adding a beer makes this recipe a little bit fun and unique, and gives you something to sip while you wait for the onions to caramelize. There are so many beers out there and they all can add their own fingerprint on the broth. I’m not into strong or stout beers, but that’s what you want to use. The more flavor the better! I suggest at least an IPA, probably not a sour, and if you’re thinking of using Bud Light you’re not trying hard enough. Here’s what I used this time around (see picture below). It was something somebody left in my fridge at a recent party. If that’s you, thanks for contributing to my onion soup!

Serves 4

Prep time 15 minutes

Cook time 2 hours

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 bacon strips
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 lbs onions
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 stout or IPA beer
• 8 cups beef broth (I prefer Swanson)
• 5 oz crostini baked bread, sliced
• 12 slices Gruyère or provolone cheese, sliced thin
• paprika as a topping
• fresh thyme as a topping (optional)

RECIPE:

Open the beer and let some of the fizz die out. Or we can call this “letting it breathe” if that feels more sophisticated.

Slice the onions in half then slice each half into fourths and place in a bowl. Add the garlic and caraway seeds to the onions.

In a stock pot, cook the bacon on medium heat. Remove when done, let them cool and be a hero and treat your dogs to them while you add the butter to the pot. If you don’t have dogs you can eat them yourself as an appetizer or save them for something else. But if you have dogs and you’ve been cooking bacon, I bet those dogs have that scent in their snout something fierce and are staring at you with those deep puppy eyes hoping you’ll come through just this once……!

Once melted, add the onion, garlic, and caraway seeds. Stir to coat each onion slice in the butter, then cover and allow to sweat on medium heat until caramelized. This will take about 30 minutes and the onions will reduce quite a bit during the process. If they start to burn, reduce the heat.

When the onions are caramelized to your liking stir in the flour and cook for about one minute. Then add the beer and beef broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 1 hour. Add freshly cracked salt and pepper as needed. If the broth needs more beef flavor add a bouillon cube. If it reduces too much add water or broth as you see fit.

Turn oven to 350 F. Add a dab of butter to each slice of crostini on a baking sheet and place on the middle rack of the oven. Heat until slightly browned, remove, and set aside.

Switch oven to broil. Place serving bowls on a baking pan. When ready, place 3 slices of the crostini in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the onion soup in the bowls and then layer crostini slices on top. Four slices fit perfectly in our bowls. Then layer 3 slices of cheese over the bread. I prefer the taste of gouda but it doesn’t melt as well as provolone. If you’re having trouble deciding which to use, place a slice in each hand and offer it to your dog. Let him make the decision. They usually have pretty good taste. Sprinkle paprika over the cheese and place the baking pan with the bowls of soup on the top rack of the oven. Be very careful not to burn the cheese. You just want to cook until the cheese melts and starts to brown a little bit.

Sprinkle some fresh thyme over the top if you’re using, serve, and enjoy!

Oh man, I love soup season! On a cold, rainy, miserable day a little magic broth is the perfect dinner to lift my spirits.

Growing up in Korea I didn’t know they were called dumplings. I learned the Korean word mandu first, and mostly ate them as yaki mandu which is the fried version. Don’t confuse that with yucky. I never ate one that I would call a yucky mandu. But yaki mandu…….I ate a ton of those!

You could make your own dumplings if your creative juices are flowing. But I was going for an easy weeknight version of this soup so I used frozen dumplings. You just plop them into the broth without even thawing them out. Again, easy weeknight meal is the theme here, so if you come home from work and are in a bind because you didn’t thaw any meat out to cook with this is a great recipe in a pinch!

To stick with the easy weeknight theme, I tried to make this recipe with ingredients anyone could find in their local Piggly Wiggly. The only items that you might have trouble finding are the Thai chilis which could be substituted for jalapenos, and the rock candy which sugar could do just as well. But I needed to use my Thai chilis before they go bad, and I had a new bag of rock candy from a brand I’ve never used and was itching to open it up. Kona and Reese approved and thought they were lukewarm, sweetened ice cubes (picture below). Anyway, I hope you give it a shot and enjoy it as much as we do. If so, feel free to comment below or post a pic on social media!

Serves 4

Preparation Time 10 min

Cook Time 1 hour 15 min

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 cups Swanson chicken broth
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 onion, peeled
• 1 shallot, peeled
• 3 Thai chilis, ends removed and just 1 sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp rock candy (or sugar)
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
• 1.5 lb frozen pork or chicken dumplings
• 2 cups carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 2 cups packed spinach leaves

RECIPE:

Add the broth to a stock pot over high heat and bring to a boil. At the same time, set the oven to broil and, once heated, add the garlic, onion, shallot, and the 2 whole chilis to the oven. Allow the vegetables to brown and then add them to the broth along with the soy sauce, fish sauce, rock candy, oil, and five spice. Let the vegetables and broth simmer for 1 hour then add the dumplings and carrots until the dumplings are cooked through. You’ll have to go through the anguish of trying one to know if it’s done.

Remove from heat and stir in the spinach until the leaves just begin to wilt. Then all you have to do is pour the soup into bowls and serve with chopped green onions and chilis. Enjoy!

I saw a sandwich coming directly at my face. I didn’t know what kind it was til it was a bahn mi. 🙂 I’m sorry. It’s ok if you want to block this website.

A bahn mi sandwich should have ALL the flavahs! All you need are some carrots and daikon radish, some sort of meat (Beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, whatever! Heck, a bahn mi hot dog is pretty dad gum good, but I’ll save that for another post.), a ham slice, cucumber, and peppers and you’ve got it made. In this case, my wife had cooked a brisket all day long and we had an enormous amount of leftover tasty pull-apart beef the next day. Perfect filling for a bahn mi!

Some recipes call for mayonnaise or a sauce but this sandwich is so tasty already I don’t think it’s necessary to add the calories. But feel free to if you like!

Serves 4

Preparation, 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

• leftover brisket, cooked (we used https://www.tastewiththeeyes.com/?s=brisket)
• 4 hoagie buns
• 3 tbsp butter (optional)
• 1 tbsp siracha (optional)
• 2 cups daikon, cut into matchsticks
• 1 cup carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 2 Thai chili peppers, minced
• 4 slices of ham
• 1 cucumber, sliced into 4″ thin strips
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced thin
• 1 handful of chopped cilantro, about 1/2 cup

RECIPE:

If you used the brisket recipe provided, reheat it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 300 degrees.

Combine the hot water and sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the next 4 ingredients to the sugar mixture, stir well and set in the refrigerator to cool. Once back to room temperature or cooler, pour over the daikon and carrots in a ziplock bag and place in the refrigerator. This step can be done the day before to really get the vegetables to absorb the flavor of the mixture if you like, but at least do it for an hour.

I like to heat the buns a little with a butter-siracha mix to add some flavor, but if that’s not your thing go ahead and skip this step. I mix the butter and siracha and place in the microwave for 1 minute, then brush on top of the buns and place them in the oven (with the brisket at 300 degrees in this case) until done and the butter comes to a nice glaze, about 15 minutes. This can be done on the top rack of a grill with great results too.

All that’s left to do is assemble the sandwiches. Line the inside of the sandwich with the slice(s) of ham. Fill with brisket (or whatever other meat you are using). Since I cut the buns down the center I slid the cucumber slices in between the brisket and ham, but if your buns are open on the side just top the meat with the cucumbers. Then top with the daikon-carrot mixture, and finally a few jalapeño slices and chopped cilantro. Serve and enjoy!