Why is it called French Onion Soup and not onion soup? If you clicked the link, you will know that it is onion soup made with a meat stock (mainly beef) and topped with a crusty something, in this recipe a slice or rather half a slice of my homemade Herman Orange Parmesan toast with melted mozzarella cheese.

If you change the from a meat to a vegetarian stock, I guess you just have to call it Onion Soup. This is a very very easy recipe to make especially if you use store bought stock or stock cubes. You can substitute the bread with a slice of baguette or regular bread or simply top with a mixture of breadcrumbs & cheese and pop it under the grill for the cheese to melt.

Ingredients: serves 2-3

4 yellow or white onions

1 stock cube, beef

1 slice bread

handful of shredded mozzarella cheese

Method:

• Remove outer layers of skin from the onion. Half then thickly slice the onion.

• Fry in some olive oil. Note that the onions will absorb the oil and you can add more while frying. The trick is to fry the onions till they caramelize, i.e. when they turn brown.

• How brown you want your soup to look is how brown or long you fry your onions. If you look at the photo above, you can see the dark brown crusts on the bottom of the pot. The goal is to achieve as much of that as is possible.
• When you have browned the onions to the desired caramelization colour, add a cup of water. Start pushing the brown crust into the water. You will see the water turning brown.
• Add 2 more cups of water & the stock cube or 1 cup beef stock + 1 cup water.
• Once the stock cube dissolves, add some salt to taste.
• Slice 2 pieces of a baguette or a slice of bread. Sprinkle some shredded mozarella cheese and toast till the cheese melts. (Microwave works too!)
• Serve soup topped with a slice of the bread or toast.