I've had my eye on this recipe for awhile. I found it in an obscure soup cookbook and had never heard of anything like it before.....Beef and Onions in Red Wine Soup....yum right? OK, so maybe not for everyone but you have to understand that I come by this one honestly. My grandfather ate a steady diet of steak accompanied with red wine. I mean, like 3-4 times a week you could find him devouring this meal with such gusto and refilling that wine goblet afterwards with such a satisfied look on his face. My grandfather knew how to live life and he knew how to eat! So maybe it was a little bit of nostalgia that attracted me to this recipe.

Let me start off by saying that my esteemed panel of judges were not expected to try this one. I knew that Jason may have been the only one who would like it and the thyme in the recipe pretty much made even that a far stretch. That said, I did get the vegetarian husband to sample the broth and he agreed it was good. To start this soup you had to create the broth. I was surprised that the base of the soup included cubed beef (don't tell vegetarian husband!), carrots, onions, garlic and turnips. I'm not sure that I've ever put those ingredients together before. Let me just tell you that after sauteing this concoction in a little bit of butter, the kitchen began to smell heavenly.


After browned, you add a 1/2 c. of red wine (I bought cheap and dry) and 1/2 c. of beef broth. You boil this until there is barely any liquid left....I'm really not sure what this creates, but I think it has something to do with infusing the wine/broth flavor into the base ingredients.


I then got to do something else I've never done before and made a bouquet garni which is basically a bag o'spices. It involved cheese cloth, and fresh herbs such as parsley, bay leaf and thyme. You add your bag o'spices to your base ingredients and a whole lotta wine and broth.



OK, this is starting out really well.....After simmering for 2 hours (yeah I know, who has the time? Trust me it's worth it!) you strain the solids and discard. Wait, hold the phone, throw out a wine-infused "stew" of beef and veggies?! Not this Dutch girl!....I saved it and plan on using it as a base for a stew to serve over egg noodles.....So now that we have this amazing rich broth you can keep it as it is, or thin it out a bit. I chose to add about a cup of cold water (use only cold water when adding to broth otherwise the broth will get cloudy) to thin it out a bit and I was very satisfied. Now onto the fun! You brown another pound of cubed beef (I used a lovely marbled piece of beef loin shell steak) for a few minutes on the stove and then roast it in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes


.....in the meantime you caramelize onions with lots of thyme (I love thyme btw, it's such a fresh herb!). Bringing the broth to a boil once more you add some cremini mushrooms and fresh chopped chives. You only cook the shrooms and chives for 4 minutes and then take the soup off the stove.


Taking a hefty helping of those yummy onions and placing them in the center of your soup bowl, you pour the broth over the onions and then add as much of that roasted meat as you want. I opted to eat this with a crusty bread accompanied by smoked cheddar.

So how was it? It was amazing! The flavor was multi-layered...there was so much depth to it with the spices in the background and the wine in the forefront. The sweet onions were just the perfect bedfellow to the mushrooms and beef. You could certainly serve a crispy green salad with this but definitely have that crusty bread along for the ride! Enjoy!