Add One Pantry Staple To Meatballs For A Flavor-Packed Upgrade

French onion soup is an internet sensation, but not in the way you might think. Rather than trying to perfect the brothy appetizer, ambitious home cooks are taking inspiration from the dish and applying it to other recipes for a boost of flavor, and meatballs are joining in the fun. Heavenly French onion soup is made by slowly simmering beef broth and sliced onions. It's been enjoyed for centuries thanks to its inexpensive and readily available ingredients. So naturally, to make next-level meatballs reminiscent of the humble yet flavorful soup, you only need one versatile pantry staple: onion soup mix.

The popular blend commonly features a lineup of potent ingredients including both dehydrated onions and onion powder, plus salt, sugar, and sometimes soy sauce. While it might be best known for the classic creamy dip made famous by Lipton, onion soup and dip mix is great for flavoring both vegetable and meat dishes, though it's especially tasty when providing an oniony, umami-packed kick to meatballs. The convenient allium-based seasoning doesn't just enhance the flavor of the ground meat, it also helps ensure that your meatballs stay moist, since the enzymes in the onions help with tenderizing during cooking.

For a comforting, Frenchified one-pan meatball dish, prep a meatball mixture with ground meat, breadcrumbs, an egg, and onion soup mix. Expect to use a single 1-ounce packet (or 2 tablespoons) for every pound of ground meat. If soup mix isn't something you usually have on hand, you probably still have its key components in your pantry. To make an onion soup mix from scratch, break down a beef bouillon cube and combine it with dried onion flakes, onion powder, and parsley flakes, plus a tiny amount of black pepper and paprika to taste, then add as normal to your meatball mixture.

If you want to make the alliums the star of the show, make sure to caramelize slices of the best onion variety for French onion soup to accentuate the oniony flavor of your soup mix meatballs. After simmering the browned meatballs with the caramelized onions, some home cooks like to add shavings of the very underrated Gruyere cheese to melt over the top, but you can also stuff your meatballs with more of the cheese for an even richer bite.

A pound of ground beef will net you 16 meatballs. You can dish them up simply with a slice of toasted baguette on the side for dipping, or use a slab of the crusty bread to make a hearty sandwich. You could also add cooked gnocchi or noodles to the pan (along with some broth) for a cheesy pasta bake. Life's full of possibilities when your meatballs are imbued with the savory goodness of onion soup mix.