New-School French Onion Dip Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Make Ahead

by: Sarah Coates

June21,2014

2 Ratings

New-School French Onion Dip Recipe on Food52 (1)

Makes about 2 cups

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Author Notes

There is no denying that homemade usually tastes better than store-bought. And lucky for us, this is definitely one of those times. It's no surprise to me that sliced red onions, slowly cooked down with thyme, olive oil, a little sugar and white wine until they reach a dark caramelized jam taste better than a packet dehydrated who-knows-what. And it's also no surprise to me that good quality cream cheese and sour cream whipped together in front of my eyes tastes better than whatever stabilizers and thickening agents have gone into a tub of store-bought French Onion. Once the creamy base and the dark sticky onions come together, it's game over. I'm sorry, but that plastic tub never stood a chance. Homemade's got it beat hands-down. —Sarah Coates

Test Kitchen-Approved

What You'll Need

Ingredients

For the onion jam:
2 large red onions
1 tablespoonolive oil
Salt
2 teaspoonschopped fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoonsgranulated sugar
¹/₄ cupwhite wine or dry vermouth

For the dip:
12 ouncescream cheese at room temperature
¹/₂ cupsour cream
¹/₂ cupfried shallots, optional, to garnish (these can be found in the asian food section of your supermarket)

Directions

First, make the onion jam. Peel and slice the onions into fine half-moons. Place them into a wide heavy-based pan, along with the olive oil, and sweat over a medium-low heat until they begin to caramelize and brown, about 15 minutes.
Add the thyme leaves and granulated sugar to the pan, and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until the sugar is melted and the onions are well caramelized.
Pour the white wine or vermouth into the pan, and working quickly, stir and scrape any sticky, browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring and scraping until the pan is basically clean, and the liquid has completely evaporated. Turn off the heat, and set aside to cool. (If packed into a sterilized jar, this mixture can be kept in the fridge for up to a week)
To make the dip, beat the cream cheese (either with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer) until it is completely smooth. Add the sour cream and beat again until smooth, thick and combined.
At this point, you can either add the cooled onion jam and mix the two together, or do as I like to do, and serve the smooth, creamy dip spread out on a plate, and topped with a tangle of onions. Either way, sprinkle with the crisp fried shallots and serve!

Tags:

Dip
French
Cheese
Vegetable
Cream Cheese
Onion
Shallot
Sour Cream
Thyme
Vermouth
Make Ahead
Serves a Crowd

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Austin Burges
Rhonda35
Kaite
Virginia Martin
nbk2101

Recipe by: Sarah Coates

thesugarhit.com

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21 Reviews

Austin B. November 27, 2018

So is there a difference between French Onion Dip & Sour Cream and Onion Dip?

Alison July 4, 2018

This was too sweet. Next time I would cut the sugar and maybe consider using regular brown onions instead.

Rhonda35 May 26, 2017

So good! I caramelized the onions, let them cool, then pulsed everything in the food processor until the onions were broken up and the mixture was combined well. Worked out perfectly!

Kaite January 20, 2017

Seriously delicious stuff! I don't know how others caramelize their onions but it took me nearly three hours to get mine nice and dark. I do it low and slow. I also chopped up my caramelized onions before mixing them with the cream cheese/sour cream. I would classify this more as a spread rather than a dip. Loved the addition of the fried shallots on top. A keeper for sure!

Beth June 20, 2017

That's how I caramelize mine! I just let them go over very low heat, in a small amount of oil (less than 1 T). I don't touch them again until they just start to get a little color. Once they do, I stir them every now and again, watching carefully to make sure they don't brown too fast (if they start to stick I add 1-2 T water to deglaze a little.) Once they're where I like them (avg cook time at this point is at least 2 hours), I add any herbs I'm feeling and hit the pan with whatever wine I'm feeling (usually just w/e is on hand) and sometimes I finish it with 1/2 T butter, for a little extra richness.

Virginia M. March 22, 2015

Very yummy, highly addictive. I "whipped" the cream cheese and sour cream together in the food processor and the texture turned out great, very light and spreadable. As others have suggested, I chopped up the onions before folding them I into the dip so they'd be even throughout and easy to pick up on chips. I can't wait to put this on some bagels!