Brown Lentil Soup and French Onion Soup - Perfection

Big Chef made two soups last weekend: Brown Lentil Soup and French Onion Soup.

Both would have been totally vegetarian except that he used chicken stock in one and beef stock in the other. I don't think French Onion Soup could be made sucessfully without beef stock but the lentil soup recipe did call for vegetable stock. Big Chef did not have time to make veggie stock himself and store-bought veggie stock is ... how to be diplomatic? Oh yeah, this is how to say it: It's AWFUL.

Both soups were wonderful. We have had one or the other every evening this past week. That's a good thing for Sioux Chef. Easy meals.

Both recipes come from Cook's Illustrated.

Key to the Lentil Soup. Follow the recipe. Use Swiss Chard. I am accustomed to using spinach in lentil soup but Swiss Chard adds a hint of sweetness that compliments the earthy lentils. At the table, finish each bowl with just a tablespoon of red wine and a little parmesean cheese.

Key to the French Onion Soup: Cook those onions down, down, down without burning. Fond is good. Black bits of burnt onion is not. Finish the individual bowls with higest quality gruyere cheese. The stuff restaurants use resembles hot plastic. Avoid. And, really, you don't need that much cheese because this soup is so good you do not want to detract from the experience.