Gruyere Soup with Onion Jam

I marked a recipe for Gruyere Soup in an old community cookbook years ago. It was very plain, nothing fancy, but I marked it thinking that I could doctor up the recipe with vegetables or herbs or wine or any manner of ideas. But when I came around to making the soup, to test out my theories, I suddenly had the idea that instead of complicating the soup, I could turn it into a sort of reverse-engineered French onion soup. So I kept the soup simple, letting the nutty gruyere shine through with a classically French hit of Dijon mustard. Instead of those oozing cheesy toasts, I float a crisp toast spread with a very rich and flavorful caramelized onion jam. The whole blends into a rich and creamy bowl with the homey French flavors re-imagined in a whole new way.

I love the contrast of the pale, almost buttery, soup with the mahogany rich onions floating on the surface.  Using red onions and adding a little cassis to the jam deepen the color and the flavor. I find that finely diced onions make the whole easier to eat and I choose a larger Italian-style loaf over a baguette so there is one nice onion-y raft floating in the bowl. I have thought, but never attempted, to serve this as they would in a restaurant. Serve each diner a bowl with a mound of onions on the toast at the bottom, then pour over the hot soup tableside. Wouldn’t that be a sight.

[yumprint-recipe id=’31’]