French Onion Soup :: The Easiest Soup You'll Ever Make

It's winter. The weather kind of sucks. You miss home. What's the cure? Soup. Everyone likes soup. I like soup. Do you like soup? Well, you'll definitely like this soup.

French Onion Soup. Sounds fancy and complicated, no? Actually, no - it is not complicated at all. There are less than 5 ingredients, fewer than 5 steps and since you're just probably just going to eat this soup at home in your college sweats with your boo, you don't need to fuss over broiling the cheese and bread in that ramekin you probably don't own. The soup does take a bit of time, but you don't need to slave over the pot the whole time. May I suggest watching this in your downtime? Or you could start watching The Wire. (Oh who am I kidding, any pop culture nerd worthy of their snark has already watched the entire season by now!)

Ingredients

5 large onions, white or yellow - your call
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
4 cups of beef broth/stock (you can use chicken or veggie too, but I prefer beef)
salt
pepper

Optional Ingredients 

a crusty baguette, french or sourdough sound nice
gruyere cheese

1. Chop the onions. You'll want semi-small pieces so try cutting the onions in half, slicing, then halving the slices. This is probably the hardest part - be prepared to tear up. 

2. Heat a large soup pot on medium heat and melt the butter until it's completely melted and starting to foam. Add all the onions and coat with the butter. Salt and pepper the onions lightly. Cook the onions for at least 45 minutes on medium low heat, stirring occasionally. The onions will slowly caramelize. 

 3. Add the soup broth/stock to the onions. If you're feeling really sassy, you can deglaze the pan with a little red wine before adding the stock. And if you're felling even sassier, you could also add in a piece of star anise or cloves for some flavor. It's not necessary, but I took this cue from the way pho broth is made and if it works for pho, it can work here too, right?

Turn the heat to high to bring the soup to a boil, then simmer for another 45 minutes. The longer you simmer, the deeper the flavor. I was really hungry, so I simmered the soup for 30 minutes and it was still very delicious.

4. Your soup is done, but of course you could toast up some bread and melt gruyere cheese on top. What I really wish I'd done was made a grilled gruyere cheese sandwich to eat on the side of the french onion soup. Why don't you try it out for me and tell me how it goes?