Ninja Foodi French Onion Soup

Election week. Tuesday. I voted with Marcus again — he stood in line with me, masked, watching, absorbing. The line was long. The wait was two hours. Marcus read a book in line (Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy" again — he rereads it annually, like scripture). When we finally reached the front, I cast my ballot and Marcus watched and the poll worker, an elderly Black woman with a name tag that said "Dorothy," looked at Marcus and said, "You'll be voting in three years, young man." Marcus said, "Yes ma'am. I'm ready now." Dorothy laughed. I didn't. He IS ready. He's been ready since he started arguing about textbooks in sixth grade.

The rest of the week was the particular agony of waiting for results in an election that felt like more than an election. The house was tense. Derek watched the news with the volume low. Curtis watched upstairs with the volume high (he's going deaf and won't admit it). The kids orbited between screens and anxiety. I cooked. What else would I do? I made soup and bread and chili and every comfort food in my repertoire because when the country is deciding its future, you cannot control the count but you can control the cornbread.

I said I made soup that week, and I meant this one — French onion, low and slow on the caramelize, then finished fast in the Ninja Foodi because I didn’t have the patience for anything that took longer than it had to. There’s something about standing over a pot of onions, watching them go from sharp and raw to something sweet and golden and almost unrecognizable, that felt exactly right for that particular Tuesday night. The country was in the middle of its own slow transformation, and I couldn’t do a thing about that — but I could do this, and when the broiler melted the cheese over the bread and the bowls came out of the kitchen and Derek turned the volume down and the kids sat at the table, we were, for a few minutes, just people eating soup together.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large yellow onions, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry sherry
6 cups beef broth (low-sodium)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 bay leaf
6 thick slices French baguette, lightly toasted
1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyère or Swiss cheese

Instructions

Sauté the onions. Set the Ninja Foodi to Sauté on High. Add the butter and let it melt. Add the sliced onions, sugar, and salt. Cook, stirring every 5 minutes, for 30—35 minutes until the onions are deeply golden and caramelized. Reduce the heat to Medium if they begin to scorch on the edges.
Build the base. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the white wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Let the wine cook down for 2 minutes.
Pressure cook. Add the beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and bay leaf. Lock the pressure lid in place and set the Ninja Foodi to Pressure Cook on High for 10 minutes. Allow a natural release for 5 minutes, then carefully quick-release the remaining pressure.
Season and finish. Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Broil the bowls. Ladle the soup into oven-safe bowls set on a baking sheet. Place a toasted baguette slice on top of each bowl and cover generously with shredded Gruyère. Broil on High for 2—4 minutes, watching closely, until the cheese is bubbly and spotted golden brown. Serve immediately and carefully — the bowls will be very hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Ninja Foodi French Onion Soup — What You Make When You Can’t Control the Count