Caramelized Onion and Basil Grilled Cheese with Beef and Vegetable Soup

^{This post has been sponsored by Nature's Own. All opinions expressed are my own.}

Today we're putting together one of my favorite wintry combos - soup and sandwich, and we'll be doing so with a little (a lot of) help from my new friends over at Nature's Own, with whom I've partnered on today's post, but more on them and their Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White loaf in just a minute.

We'll be starting off with an Italian-style beef soup, which features pot-roasted chuck simmered with mixed veggies, lots of garlic, fresh rosemary and parsley, and fresh basil. We'll be pairing this with a Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese, prepared using Nature's Own Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White bread, and a mix of Gruyere and White Cheddar.

Why You'll Love Today's Soup and Sandwich Combo

1. Perfect for Wintery Nights. Today's soup is hardy and filling, while also being warming and delicious, making it ideal for those snowy winter nights. The sandwich is an excellent accompaniment, being simple to put together, hardy in its own right, and without taking away from the soup, but rather complementing it.
2. It Keeps. This recipe is 'leftover friendly,' as the soup keeps nicely for several days in the fridge.
3. Heats up Beautifully. Today's soup heats up beautifully right on the stovetop; just be careful to heat it up at a simmer rather than a boil.
4. Make Ahead. As you might have guessed, since today's soup both heats up beautifully and keeps well for several days, this makes it a great "Make Ahead Meal."

Ingredient Notes and Tips

1. The Cheese. The key ingredient behind any good grilled cheese is, surprise, good cheese. For today's sandwich, we're using a mix of Gruyere and White Cheddar. However, other cheeses that would work include Jarlsberg, Gouda, and Oaxaca. Jarlsberg tends to be flavor-neutral, featuring a mild 'nutty' taste, which would complement today's ingredients beautifully. Gouda would pair deliciously with the caramelized onions and basil, and melts down quite nicely. Oaxaca, for those who aren't familiar, is essentially a "Mexican Mozzarella," but with a flavor that tastes like a cross between unaged Monterey Jack and Mozzarella - and as such would be a perfect stand-in for the cheddar.
2. The Bread. For the grilled cheese, we want hardy, substantial slices that will not only hold up through the preparation of the grilled cheese, but that will also hold up alongside the soup, and that's exactly what Nature's Own Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White loaves offer. Nature's Own Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White loaf features dreamy thick-cut slices with a flour-dusted crust, as well as no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors, and no high fructose corn syrup. Being Non-GMO Project Verified, Nature's Own Perfectly Crafted Thick Sliced White loaves are not only delicious, but it's bread that you can feel good about eating. These qualities make it the perfect bread for today's sandwich.
3. The Best Beef for Soup, Stew, and Pot Roasting. I'm so long-winded that I decided to make this point its own section.

The Best Beef for the Soup

Long story short, chuck roast. That's it, you can stop reading there. If you want the 'why' behind the chuck, see below.

As I covered in a previous post, fat is flavor when it comes to meat - all meat. Why is this? Well, you can thank our lowly origins as a species, and our ancestors' need to 'store nutrients.' For a detailed dive, see the aforementioned link. With that in mind, chuck roast contains somewhere in the ballpark of 20% fat. This is actually the 'midrange' of fat content when it comes to cuts of beef, being fattier than brisket, sirloin, or round, but leaner than rib or loin cuts. Normally, when selecting beef, we tend to look for the juiciest and tenderest of cuts, but while this is a good rule for steaks, the opposite is true when looking for cuts intended for roast. Slow-and-low pot roasting 'tenderizes' the meat by dissolving the connective tissue and reducing away the fat into the broth and meat. Thus, if you're starting with a cut of beef that is already maximally tender with sky-high fat content, you can imagine the issues that might occur - the beef melts away to nothing, draining 'too much' fat, while the remaining meat becomes either rubbery or spongy. Not fun. By contrast, if you start with a piece of meat that isn't fatty at all, you end up simply drying out and toughening the meat as the muscle tissue reduces away its juices without having those juices replaced by melting fat.

It's probably worth noting that chuck roast is 'so' common for pot roasting that some butchers simply label chuck roast as 'pot roast.' Other names for the cut include 'shoulder steak,' 'chuck eye,' 'cross-rib roast,' and my personal favorite 'seven-rib roast.'

However, if you're averse to chuck roast either due to its inherent toughness or high fat content, Beef Brisket also makes an excellent pot roast, which means it's also great for soup and stew. While it comes with a slightly higher price tag, beef brisket is naturally more tender, but its slightly lower fat content will result in a slightly less 'flavored' and 'textured' broth, so you might want to account for that by adding beef bouillon to the broth.

Round roast, the starting point for the ubiquitous 'roast beef,' also makes a fairly decent pot roast, and therefore soup and stew. However, this cut is even leaner than brisket, and so you'll want to rub it down with herbed butter prior to roasting, and again add beef bouillon to the broth; otherwise, you'll have a fairly dry roast, and a fairly untextured broth. However, if you do that, and utilize a somewhat 'lower-and-slower' cooking process, you'll end up with a perfectly acceptable pot roast, soup, or stew.

And that about covers it. If you used a different cut of beef for today's soup, let me know how it turned out. I love hearing from you!

More Beef Favorites From Living the Gourmet

1. Curried Hamburgers. A flavorful twist on a familiar classic, these beef burgers are prepared with a mix of Jamaican curry, paprika, and coriander, and then finished a decadent balsamic glaze. Seriously, give these a try.
2. Classic Roast Beef. If you're in the mood for something familiar and warming, this classic roast beef fits that bill perfectly. This is a recipe that just exudes 'Sunday Dinner.'
3. Ultimate Steak Platter. Teriyaki and garlic-marinated steak, served with a side of warmed mixed greens and grilled potatoes. This is a recipe for a party.

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And that's our Caramelized Onion and Basil Grilled Cheese with Beef and Vegetable Soup! If you enjoyed today's recipe, or have any questions or suggestions, be sure to let us know in the comments below. We always love hearing from you!

Happy Cooking!