What French soup is made from onions, beef broth, and melted cheese?

French onion soup is made from onions, beef broth, and melted cheese. The onions are slowly cooked until soft and golden, then simmered in stock before being topped with bread and cheese and browned until bubbling.

Known in French as soupe à l’oignon, the dish has roots in older French onion soups, but the familiar gratinéed version emerged in the 19th century. François Pierre de la Varenne included onion-soup recipes in his 1680 cookbook, showing that the basic dish predates the modern restaurant style.

Beef stock is traditional and common, but recipes may use chicken or veal stock, or even water. The defining features are sweetly softened onions and a bread-and-cheese topping, not one mandatory type of broth. It is also commonly confused with other onion soups that lack the gratinéed cheese crust.