Adventures of a Chef on the Run: Instant Pot French Onion Soup

As I've had @modprobe's Instant Pot to play around with, I've tried all sorts of things in it, both old and new recipes.  Today's recipe is an adaptation of one I shared awhile back, when I made it for my best local friend for his birthday dinner.  The value of the instant pot is it turns a dinner that'd generally take all day into one that takes a fraction of the time.  Let's get on with it, shall we?

What you need:

1.5 kg onions, mixed varieties if possible

5 T butter

3 Beef (or whatever, even could be vegetarian) bullion cubes

1/5 L water

Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar

Start by melting the butter in the instant pot on manual and chopping the onions.  

Add them in when the butters melted and stir to combine.  Fry them at this same temperature for awhile.

They will soften and a brownish layer will form on the bottom, which is totally normal and actually desired.

Here shows the bottom you're looking for. 

Add the water, bullion, salt, pepper and garlic powder and cover with the pressure cooker lid.

Turn the lever to sealed and put on manual for 12 minutes. Allow to natural release.  In the mean time, slice some bread and sprinkle cheese on top.  Put in the oven to crisp.

At this point add the bread to the bowls, like shown.

The soup should look like this once it's ready to serve.

Then just spoon the soup over that.  It's pretty simple and turned out very well for what it was.  While I always prefer a long simmered version, it's not bad for how long it took.  While the instant pot doesn't always get the depth of flavor that a long bake or roast can get, it does do a good job of making decent food quickly.

For anyone interested in helping us out, we're trying to get an Instant Pot or Mexican generic equivalent before @modprobe moves out and takes his with him.  While I've had a good run with it, I know it won't last forever.  If you're interested in helping with that, contact us to help keep the instant pot recipes going! Thanks for reading and supporting, until next time!