French Onion Soupwiches - Recipe Review

Make this.

Just do it.

I added this recipe from Pinterest to our meal plan this week and it surpassed every expectation I may have had. You can find the original recipe here, at Oh My Veggies!

This sadwich is modified for Vegetarians, but you could very well make it with beef broth if you felt the need. We couldn't find no-beef broth (even at Whole Foods like the original recipe suggests), but a wonderful worker at Whole Foods recommended using Mushroom Broth and that was perfect!

What you'll need: 

2 tbsp olive oil

2 large onions, thinly sliced

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 tsp dried thyme

4 ciabatta rolls, halved (We ended up using six just fine and the small rolls at Trader Joe's were surprisingly filling and just the right size)

1 c. shredded Gruyere cheese

4 c. no-beef broth, heated (you can find meatless beef broth at stores like Whole Foods) (We ended up using Mushroom broth)

What you'll do:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on low heat. Add sliced onions and cook until caramelized about an hour and fifteen minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in salt and pepper to taste and thyme.

Heat panini press or grill on high. Divide caramelized onions onto bottom of rolls and top each one with 1/4 cup of cheese and top half of roll. Grill for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bread is golden-brown. Serve each sandwich with 1 cup of broth.

Notes:

Caramelizing onions on low for an hour and fifteen minutes didn't work for us. We tried, and they were still just regular, cooked onions, so we cranked that heat up, kept a close eye on them, and browned them up relatively quickly.

A vegetable mandolin did our slicing, and it was perfect.

Extra Note: Keep vegetable mandolins away from toddler fingers... Trust us on this one.

We don't have a panini press, so we just popped the sandwiches in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese was melted. We also put our bread in the oven before we made sandwiches because we toss our bread in the freezer after we buy it so it won't go bad (you know, since we buy the fresh kind without all of the preservatives in it). So, we tossed the rolls in to thaw, and then sliced them to make the sandwiches, and then put the bottoms back in the oven just to melt the cheese.

We served these up with a simple salad and a side of mushroom broth (for us, but not the boys). Little tore into his sandwich like it was his last meal. Big ate the salad and the bread off his sandwich, but wasn't as interested in the onions.

Overall, I call it a win. It was delicious and a relatively inexpensive meal. We might sub the cheese with a less expensive variety if  when we make it again considering we usually have a ton of shredded cheese already stocked in our fridge, but still, the Gruyere was less than 6$ for a small block at Trader Joe's.

Just do it. It's yummy. You'll like it. In fact... I would like to eat it again... Like now.