Homemade French Onion Dip

Let's be honest -- we all LOVE French onion dip made with sour cream and a packet of Lipton onion soup mix.  It's salty, creamy, tangy and plain-old delicious, especially on a potato chip.  But sometimes you want an elevated onion dip and every time I've made this, people have RAVED about it.   It takes a bit of time to put together because you need to caramelize onions, but it's so easy to make.

4 large yellow onions, diced

1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of dried thyme

1 teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce  (if you will be feeding this to vegetarians, you can skip this ingredient as it includes anchovies)

1/3 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano cheese

16 ounces of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

Place the diced onions in a saute pan and add the salt, pepper, thyme and olive oil.  Mix thoroughly, cover the pan, and turn the heat onto its lowest setting.   For the next 30 minutes, stir the onions every 10 minutes and keep them covered.  By the end of this 30 minutes, they should be swimming in a lot of liquid.  Now take the cover off and turn the heat up ever so slightly, and stir them every 5 minutes.   The liquid will begin to thicken and evaporate and over the course of the next 30 or so minutes, and the onions will begin to gently turn a light brown as they caramelize.   Once they are all a nice rich golden brown, turn off the burner and let them cool.

Once cooled, add them to the sour cream or Green yogurt, and add the Worchestershire sauce and the grated cheese.  Stir thoroughly and taste for seasoning, adding more of any of the seasonings as desired.

Let it sit for at least a few hours before serving so the flavors can all meld together.

As an optional variation, you could also add 8 ounces of finely diced mushrooms (I like crimini best, but white button or any other variety are fine!) to the onions when they are just about done and cook these down for about 10 minutes until they're very tender.  This adds a nice earthy-flavor to the dip as long as all your guests like mushrooms.