If you’ve read my recipes, you know I’m not one to tell you a story first. I’m all about grabbing our gear and getting to work. However, today is a special case since this creamy onion soup recipe is a play (or kinda play) on what’s served at the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant in Las Vegas.
I took my kiddo with the most food allergies there, and of course, there wasn’t anything on the menu that was safe. That’s fine, because honestly, I just wanted to HEAR all about the food, so we took someone else with us who could eat and report in.
I ordered a few mains and a couple of desserts for this person to eat for us, and based on what I was told, Gordon didn’t disappoint. Also, the waiter we had was so freaking nice, and was like, well, have a menu and pen to take home with you since you can’t eat any of the food. I also bought a hoodie because I just can’t help myself.
So, this creamy onion soup recipe is a gluten free, diary free take on the Onion Ale Soup served at the restaurant. I’m going to warn you now, it’s not a copycat. Free-from ingredients were rather limited this time, especially where the ale is concerned. So I’m told this is a delicious soup, but not the same as what’s served at the restaurant.
Either way, I’m OK with that because the kiddo? He got to eat this, loved it, and in our own little way, we created some magic. Be sure to check out the recipe notes where I share some swaps that *might* work, along with some ideas on how to jazz this creamy soup up if you want more than basic onion soup.
Allergy Status
Free From: Wheat/Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, Tree Nuts, Peanut, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame, Top 9 Allergens, Top 14 Allergens, Apple, Avocado, Banana, Beans & Lentils, Berries, Carrot, Celery, Cinnamon, Coconut, Cruciferous, Garlic, Latex Cross Reactive Foods (H/M), Legume, Lupin, Mustard, Nightshade, Oat, Pea & Pea Protein, Potato (Nightshade Variety), Poultry, Red Meat, Squash & Gourd, Stone Fruits, Strawberry, Sweet Potato & Yam, Tapioca/Cassava/Yuca/Manioc, Tomato
Friendly To: EOE, Vegan
Compatible With: Cane/Refined Sugar Free (see ingredient notes for options)
Ale Ingredients: Water, Millet, Buckwheat, Brown Rice, Sorghum, Hops, Yeast (it’s the same ingredients for both styles)
Tools to Make Your Soup
- Kitchen Scale (this is the one that I love)
- Knife (my current fave knife series)
- Cutting Board
- Large Pot, Soup Pot or Large Dutch Oven
- Sauce Pot
- Wooden Spoon 2x
- Time and Patience (build a LEGO set whilst you wait?)
Creamy Onion Soup Recipe Video
Check out how I made this very interesting gluten free + vegan soup recipe.
Ingredients for This Creamy Onions Soup Recipe
Part 1 Ingredients
- 2.35KG Organic White Onion, sliced (5.2 lbs/84 ounces)
- 145g Dairy Free Butter or Cooking Fat of Choice (5.1 ounces)
- 2 tsp Sea Salt
Part 2 Ingredients
- 500mL Green’s Everyday Gluten Free Dubbel Ale (just about 18 ounces)
- 500mL Green’s Everyday Gluten Free Tripel Ale (just about 18 ounces)
- 5 TBSP Dark Muscovado Sugar (this is the one that I use)
- 2 tsp Organic Lemon Juice
*I tried to find the Green’s official website with no luck. Also, they may have updated their package design so hopefully the image below is enough to go on.
Ale Ingredients: Water, Millet, Buckwheat, Brown Rice, Sorghum, Hops, Yeast (it’s the same ingredients for both styles)
Part 3 Ingredients
- 60g Brown Rice Flour (1/4 cup + 1/8 cup)
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- 1.3L Milk of Choice (5.8 cups/46 ounces)
- 200mL Cooked Down Ale (from Part 2) just over 7 ounces
Part 4 Ingredients
- 225 – 450mL Hot Water (1 – 2 cups/8 – 16 ounces)
- 2 tsp Organic Dried Marjoram
- 1 tsp Organic Mushroom Powder
Creamy Onion Soup Ingredient Notes (Really Important)
Onion: This recipe is ALL about the onions. I opted for organic white onions, however, you can use organic yellow onions, organic red onions, organic Spanish onions, and the list goes on. Check out this article on the different types of onions for more ideas.
Ale: Full disclosure – I’ve never had a sip. I can only go on what tasters have told me, AND due to a wheat allergy of several tasters, I have to use gluten free ale. If you can dink ale, use what tastes good to you.
Dark Muscovado Sugar: This is a granulated sweetener that’s similar to organic dark brown sugar. Any granulated sweetener will work, but muscovado is used because of the robust flavour it brings to the table.
Brown Rice Flour: You can use any all purpose flour in this recipe. You can also use cassava flour, sorghum flour, or millet flour. Don’t use coconut flour, almond flour, tiger nut flour (tuber, not a tree nut) or any other super special flour.
Milk of Choice: The only milk I’ll encourage you not to use is full fat canned coconut milk as it can really overpower the taste of your soup and change the texture. Now, if we’re going for a Thai onion soup, canned coconut milk is back on the menu.
More Delicious Recipes to Try
If you’re looking for good food that’s allergy friendly and incredibly inclusive, I’ve got you covered. Here are just a few tasty recipes you can make:
- Easy Vegetable Soup (this is a hearty, but simple soup you can make that will have you feeling warm and cozy)
- Easy Spicy Beef with Kimchi (Grain Free, Top 9 + 14 Free)
- Easy Thai Garlic Chicken Recipe (Grain Free, Top 9 + 14 Free)
- Delicious Vegan Quinoa and Vegetables
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Instructions for Your Creamy Onion Soup (With Pictures)
First, be warned, from start to finish, it takes about 2 hours to make this soup, so make sure you have the time, and desire. However! It’s really EASY. It just takes time… like good bread.
Important Note: You’re going to get your onions started, then get your ale reduction started in a separate pot, and the two will cook at the same time. As they cook, do other stuff in your kitchen (meal prep, make a batch of waffles, make sourdough bread, do some dishes, etc.). Or, bring your laptop in and get some work done. Or, build that LEGO set I mentioned.
Onion Directions
Total Onion Cook Time: 80 – 90 Minutes on Medium Heat
Start by slicing your onions. It’s going to take you a HOT minute to get through it all. Personally, I opt to prep all of my produce for the week when I get items delivered from the grocery store, so cooking feels like a faster process.
Once your onions are ready, heat your large pot. I used a large Dutch oven for this creamy onion soup. Heat on medium heat, add your dairy free butter (or cooking fat of choice), and once it’s melted, add all of the onions and sea salt. Give them a good stir, then leave them to cook. We aren’t trying to brown onions, so don’t be tempted to cook on medium-high heat (or even high heat) thinking you’re speeding up the process. This is about patience as we allow the natural sugars to caramelize.
Ale Reduction Directions
Total Ale Cook Time: 40 – 50 Minutes (mostly as a simmer)
To make the ale reduction, start on medium high heat (8/10 for me, but not the high powered eye). Add all of the ale to the pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a medium simmer (it’s like a gentle simmer but a *little* more aggressive).
It takes about 10 minutes to get to the simmering stage. Once you’re there, simmer for 30 – 35 minutes.
Add the sugar, lemon juice, and stir the mixture well. Turn the heat off and set aside.
Instructions to Thicken and Form the Creamy Soup
My Total Cook Time for This Portion of Soup Making: 23 Minutes
Now that you have a cooked down pile of onions (which tastes amazing as-is), we’re going to form the soup. Sprinkle the flour all over the onions, then the salt, and give it a good stir. Now, pour all of the milk into the pot and stir well. Finally, measure out 200mL of your ale reduction and add that to the pot. Stir one last time to combine.
Continue to cook on medium heat, and allow the mixture to come back up to temperature. Since my dairy free milk was cold when starting, it took a while to get the pot back up to temp.
At this point, technically, you can stop. However, if you’d like to keep going, move on to the Part 4 Ingredients.
Directions for Part 4 (Optional)
Add all of the ingredients into your soup pot and stir to combine. You’ll want to add these ingredients in increments and taste as you go along. Stop when you have a soup that you love.
Know that the person who tasted the soup at the restaurant tried at after Part 3 and said that it needed *something more* if it was going to get anywhere near what the original recipe was. However, they couldn’t exactly describe it all that well, so the Part 4 Ingredients are there to add interesting notes to your soup.
A Few More Notes
If you’re thinking about adding more ale, one taster said that if you add more, it brings the bitterness of the ale to the front of the flavour profile. However, cheese in your soup can mask this, so it’s up to you.
When serving, you can add a little finishing salt if that’s your jam, or a garnish of chopped fresh herbs (I’d go with something like parsley or tarragon), or even thinly sliced scallions. Oh! Or chives!! Oh man, when my kids were growing up, I garnished everything with chives and they loved it.
How to Jazz Up This Creamy Onion Soup Recipe
There’s some simplicity to this creamy onions soup recipe that opens it up for a lot of jazz hands. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Add herbs such as bay leaves (whilst simmering then remove bay leaf before serving), fresh thyme, or tarragon.
- Make a “relish” of diced bell peppers, ground pork, and small diced zucchini. Cook that up and serve on top of your soup.
- Add a Worcestershire sauce to the ale reduction for a deeper depth of flavour. If you need a celery free, allergy friendly Worcestershire sauce, check out this option.
- Towards the end of cooking, add fresh cracked organic black pepper and a touch of cream (assuming you’re not allergic to milk).
- Drizzle really good olive oil on top when serving your bowl of soup, especially if you’ve got good crusty bread on the side.
Break Out the Cheese
You can have something reminiscent of a cheesy bowl of French onion soup. Top your perfect bowl of soup with a shredded cheese such as gouda, Parmesan, cheddar cheese, or Monterey Jack cheese. If you add it to piping hot soup, the cheese should get nice and melty on its own.
If the cheese needs a little help, put your soup in a ramekin, then place several ramekins on a baking tray. Pop that in the oven and use the broil setting. DO NOT walk away because food goes from awesome to burned in like, two blinks. But the broiler is a fast way to melt the cheese on top.
Don’t Forget the Bread
Make some fantastic bread or (bread adjacent item) to serve on the side. I’m thinking toasted to golden brown in good olive oil, tallow, or butter/dairy free butter. Then you rub the bread with fresh garlic (peel fresh cloves, cut the tip off, and literally rub it on the toasted bread), and sprinkle Italian seasoning on top… man oh man, sign me UP for that bread basket. Actually don’t, because I’m allergic to all of that, but in my head, I am feasting.
Creamy Onion Soup Storage
So, you’ve made your delicious soup, had an amazing bowl of it (please, tell me there was crusty bread), and now you’re ready to put away the leftovers. Simply transfer the content of your large pot to an airtight container and pop it in the fridge. You can store your leftovers in the fridge and eat them for the next 5 days.
With a creamy soup like this, I don’t recommend freezing it, as the texture may shift too much when you thaw it.
Leftovers Tip
You can take your leftover creamy soup and use it as a component in something else such as pasta, rice, quinoa, or even another soup (combine this with some creamy tomato soup for a TREAT). You can also add seasoned ground meat to your soup, then treat it like a dip with chips.
There are no hard and fast rules about how you have to use leftovers, and you should think of your leftover soup as “has amazing flavour bomb potential” since it’s really a bunch of onions with milk.
Answering Your Questions About This Creamy Onion Soup Recipe
How does this recipe compare to classic French onion soup?
I would say, and mind you, I’ve never eaten classic French Onion Soup, and I didn’t eat this soup, because remember, I’m allergic to just about everything. But I’d say this is classic French onion soup adjacent. The onions are there, the creaminess is there, you can still add the cheese if that’s your jam, and this soup recipe pairs well with loads of fresh herbs and dried herbs.
However, there’s the ale. So adjacent is my guess, having never eaten either. Also, the tasters haven’t had classic French onion soup, so they were of no help with this one.
Can I use chicken broth or vegetable broth instead of milk?
No, I don’t suggest this swap. Chicken stock, chicken broth, vegetable stock, and vegetable broth will all change the sodium content, overall viscosity, and the final flavour of this tasty soup recipe.
Now, you could use some broth or stock in place of the milk (no more than 25%), but I wouldn’t do more than that. Also, taste before adding the salt in Part 3 (after adding the milk and stock/broth) to see how much it really needs.
Could I use heavy cream instead of milk?
I wouldn’t make that swap because heavy cream has a much higher fat content when compared to dairy free milk. However, you could use some heavy cream if you’d like a richer mouth feel. I’d add it near the end of cooking to avoid potential splitting.
Is this basically homemade cream of onion soup?
Nope. This is more like caramelized onions met up with hot soup, and got a little boozy. Cream of onion soup will be thicker, and will read a lot differently. If that’s your favorite soup, and you’re looking to have a free-from version, this isn’t it.
If your perfect bowl of soup is closer to cream of onion soup, you’d want to do a whole roux step, create a thick milk consistency, use some heavy cream (if you’re not allergic to milk), and so on. Then, you’d take the caramelized onions and mix them into that. Think, chowder base. A chowder is going to be much thicker and have more bits and bobs within the soup (bits of mushroom, carrot, etc.). This on the other hand is just, creamy onions.
Could I blend this at the end for a smooth soup?
You absolutely could! This would be great if you love creamy soups with no texture, are feeding someone who tends to be texture averse, need soft/easy foods for a kid with new braces but they’re a foodie at heart, and the list goes on.
Personally, I couldn’t use an immersion blender for this one because I think the slices of onion wouldn’t get super smooth. Instead, once you’ve made the soup, cool it for 10-15 minutes, transfer to a high speed blender, then blend. I’m suggesting cooling because not all blenders do well with hot soup (unless you have one that specifically says it can handle that, like the one that I have with the metal bending cup).
The end result will be an uber creamy and smooth soup with rich flavor. Since you’ll be at the blender anyway, you could also add a little of this or that to jazz it up and blend something else right in. Have fun!
Is this like the onion soup at Outback Steakhouse?
Honestly, I have no clue because I’ve never been there before. If the soup at Outback Steakhouse is kind of like French onion soup, then kind of. Since this recipe has ale, I’m sure that makes it different, but also, it’s just different by nature of being free-from. This recipe has some dark notes, has a super creamy mouthfeel, and tastes great with cheese. Hopefully that description helps.
Can I use wine instead of ale?
Honestly, I have no idea since the only time I ever had a cup of wine was when I turned 21 and coworkers said I *had* to try it. Spoiler: I thought it was awful, then later learned I’m basically allergic to everything. That being said, maybe a cup wine in place of the ale? I wouldn’t even know if you should use red wine or white wine, how long it takes for the alcohol to cook off, and so much more.
Here’s my take: find a creamy soup recipe that leans into wine, then swap the vegetables for onions. Also, drink a cup of the wine whilst you cook (I hear that’s a thing). I’ll also add this. If someone threw me in a kitchen right now and said to make this with wine, I’d use 1L of white wine (probably a dry white wine) or a rose wine, cook that down, add a little organic white sugar, and use that reduction in place of the ale reduction. No idea what it would taste like, but that’s what I would do.
Isn’t it so fun to be me 🙂
