Pressure Cooker French Onion Soup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to cook soup in a pressure cooker? ›

Yes, better for some soups than others, but yes pressure cookers can make soup quickly and nicely. A pressure cooker raises the atmospheric pressure to reduce the cooking time. If your soup contains ingredients that would require an unusually long time to cook then a pressure cooker would save time.

A few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf elevate the soup even more, but I take it a step further, adding a splash of fish sauce for complexity and depth—don't worry, it won't taste fishy—and a hit of cider vinegar to balance some of that oniony sweetness.

The caramelized onions for this soup cook more quickly due to a pinch of baking soda but still have that deep, slow-cooked flavor. Topping the soup with hot, cheesy toasts prepared while the soup simmers, eliminates the need to bake the soup in specialty French onion soup bowls.

Flour: a little all-purpose flour will help to thicken the soup. You can feel free to use gluten-free flour. Dry white wine: this helps to deglaze the pan and add a boost of flavor. Beef broth: I recommend a good quality beef broth or beef stock for the best flavor.

Press the Soup button. It will say Normal, 30 minutes at High Pressure. If you press the Soup button again, you can adjust the mode from Normal to Less or More (this simply changes the cooking time). Normal mode - 30 minutes at High pressure - recommended for soups with meat.

Onion soup, at its very essence, is nothing more than onions and water boiled together. Period, done, finished, everything added from that point on is pure opinion. Caramelizing the onions brings out sugars, and makes a more luxurious silky and sweet soup, adding flour gently thickens and provides body.

If the heat is too high, the onions will burn. If you don't stir often at beginning and almost constantly toward the end, the onions will burn. If one little bit burns the whole batch needs to be tossed. Otherwise the soup ends up tasting like burnt onion.

Sometimes soup just needs to simmer longer to reach the perfect consistency. Check to see if the vegetables are tender, and then taste the broth. If the soup tastes a bit watery, give it more time.

The key to good French onion soup is to cook the onions so long that they threaten to melt into a viscous, dark brown paste, à la Marmite. As has already been extensively reported in Slate, there are no shortcuts when you're caramelizing onions; it always takes at least an hour, usually longer.

Why do you put lemon juice in soup? ›

But as the publication explains, lemon juice adds more than just tartness. For chicken soup in particular, lemon juice balances out the more rich and savory flavors, adding an overall brightness to the taste.

Wine is optional to deglaze the pan and add flavour to the soup. I recommend a dry white or red wine, such as a good quality Pinot Grigio/Gris, Sauv Blanc, Sémillon, Chardonnay, Merlot or Pinot Noir. Generally, if you can't drink it, don't cook with it.

What is the Difference Between Onion Soup and French Onion Soup? French onion soup is always made with beef stock. Other onion soups can be made with chicken, vegetable, or beef stock. Additionally, French onion soup typically contains wine or sherry, which isn't typical or necessary in other onion soups.

Another option for thickening soup is by using dairy like sour cream or yogurt. Start with a small dollop and stir before checking the consistency and adding more. We recommend using plain yogurt so you don't alter the taste of the soup. You can also use cream if you prefer.

Yes, slow cookers are a healthier way to cook food. This is because they use a low temperature to cook food, which unlike other styles of cooking, reduces the risk of destroying the nutrients in food when cooking at higher temperatures.

The general consensus seems to be that pressure cooking is better because water doesn't leach out nutrients like in other cooking methods, quick cooking times mean less time for nutrients to escape and lower temperatures mean fewer changes to the nutritional structure of foods.

Slow cookers are much better for cooking root vegetables and tough cuts of meat because the long, low-temperature cooking process is great for adding moisture and breaking down fat. Pressure cookers can get hot enough for meats and vegetables to brown in them when cooking, but slow cookers can't.

At that pressure, water boils at 121°C (250°F). That means food can cook at a much higher temperature than it ever could at atmospheric pressure—and since cooking reactions speed up at higher temperatures, your food cooks faster. It also doesn't dry out, since the water stays in liquid form.