When I was a kid, our culinary adventures were not particularly, well, adventurous. We ate a lot of pot roasts and broccoli cheese soup and spaghetti. Don’t get me wrong–it was good, and seriously, now that I’m a mom, I have nothing but crazy admiration for the fact that my mom had tasty, well-balanced meals on the table every night and still managed to juggle her 5 kids’ (the oldest of whom was 16 years older than the youngest) extracurricular and social activities without causing us (or herself) physical or emotional harm. That said, I remember the first time I had an artichoke with lemon butter so clearly I can still taste it. It was so out of the norm for me, so totally off my radar and so incredibly delicious. Same thing with French onion soup. It was, I guess, one of those foods that made me fall in love with food.
So, you know, I totally don’t have a recipe for French onion soup. I think that subconsciously, it’s special occasion food, and I’m afraid if I make it myself, it won’t be special anymore. Or something. I totally took Psychology 101 my first semester of college, so I’m qualified to make these kinds of assessments about myself.
That said, I do love to make dips. And I love melty cheese. And caramelized onions. And it’s a rainy, blustery day outside, perfect for comfort food. So even if I haven’t ventured down the dark path of making French onion soup, a dip inspired by it is a totally different beast, right?
You’re going to need a batch of these caramelized onions (with a few cloves of garlic thrown in for good measure), 2 8-ounce packages of softened cream cheese, 1 cup of sour cream (or mayonnaise, if you prefer, or half sour cream and half mayo), freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and freshly grated Gruyere (or Swiss, if Gruyere isn’t happening. Keep in mind that Gruyere is milder and usually melts more smoothly).
Preheat oven to 425.
Place the cream cheese, sour cream, Parmesan, Gruyere, and caramelized onions in a pie plate or an 8×8″ pan.
Gently stir to combine.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top and hot in the middle. Serve immediately with sliced baguette, pieces of sourdough bread, tortilla chips, or potato chips.
Hot & Cheesy French Onion Dip
Ingredients
Caramelized Onions and Garlic
- ½ tablespoon butter
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 2 medium-large sweet onions thinly sliced
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 6-8 cloves garlic minced or pressed
Dip
- 2 8- ounce packages cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream or mayonnaise, or half sour cream and half mayonnaise
- salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup freshly grated Gruyere or mild Swiss cheese
Instructions
Caramelized Onions
- Heat a large sauté pan (large enough for your onions to spread out and have contact with the bottom) over medium heat. Add the butter and olive oil, and then the onions. Do not add the garlic yet!
- Add your sliced onions and toss them in the butter and oil until they are all coated. Turn your heat down, and add a sprinkle of kosher salt. Cook and stir occasionally.
- You want to caramelize your onions low and slow. After about 10-20 minutes they should be nice and soft with a few brown pieces. After 20-30 minutes, the brown color will increase. Continue until the onions are a deep, golden brown.
- In the last 5 minutes or so, add the garlic, stirring frequently to prevent the garlic from scorching.
Dip
- Preheat oven to 425℉.
- In a pie plate or an 8×8″ pan, combine the cream cheese, Parmesan, Gruyere, and the caramelized onions.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top and hot in the middle. Serve immediately with sliced baguette, pieces of sourdough bread, tortilla chips, or potato chips.
Notes
- Caramelizing onions takes time. You can caramelize your onions for this recipe ahead of time if you’d like. Just store them in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to assemble your dip. See this post on How to Caramelize Onions for more thorough instructions and reference pictures for each step.
- You can also caramelize onions in the oven for a more hands-off approach:
- Preheat oven to 400℉. Place onion in a heavy Dutch oven and toss with melted butter and olive oil. Cover pot and cook for 1-1 ½ hours, stirring every 20 minutes, until a caramel brown color. Tip: You might want to decrease oven temperature after about 45-60 minutes to 350℉, and start stirring every 15 minutes to avoid burnt edge bits. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Questions & Reviews
Made this over the weekend. I found the onion browning part to be a bit labor intensive, mostly in that it took so long, not that it was difficult to stir some onions! LOL! But the resulting dip was DELISH!! I browned the onions and then assembled the rest of the ingredients in the crockpot to melt together and stay warm during our Thanksgiving all day eat fest. It did get quite thick by the end of the day so I stirred in some milk to loosen it back up and that worked nicely. Thanks for another great one!
Ok, made this last night for an appetizer for my husband’s special birthday dinner and my daughter who I had flown in from NYC as a surprise. And he was as I told him we had to pick up a friend at the airport. Great surprise.
Anyway, we all thought it was, as my daughter said,”scarey good”. And yet there is more….!!!
This morning I realized to my horror that I had left out the basic ingredient- the sour cream. And I knew there was something missing but wasn’t sure what. And I had made a special trip to the store the day before because I had forgotten to buy it. Weird.
Today I took it it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature and added the sour cream. Tomorrow will reheat and love it all over again but it will be “way scary good” and better.
Of course the sour cream put it over the edge. I wonder though if we could use less cream cheese. It is devilishly delicious, though very rich. I might next time I make it.
Can this be done in a crockpot?
I haven’t ventured over to y’alls blog in a while, and per usual, you do not disappoint! This looks amazing and perfect for those events where I need to bring an appetizer to impress! This blog literally supplies my family with all of our weekly faves. Keep ’em coming!
I normally just make the onion dip with the soup packet, cream cheese and sour cream. Time to step it up to a real grown up snack! I’m hosting my family this year in our home for Thanksgiving, this will be SO good! Thank you!
I’m like you and it sounds like my mom cooked like your mom – from scratch, healthy food for 5 kids, but nothing adventurous or fancy. I didn’t have French onion soup until after I got married and I fell in love with it. I do have a recipe for it that I make about once every winter. It is still special. =) I am looking forward to trying this delicious sounding dip!