Instant French Onion Soup for < $0.25

Just add hot water to this recipe to make delicious onion soup for less than the cost of ramen noodles!
A hot, low calorie soup makes a perfect lunch on the go!

Step 1: Making some soup!

Toss a couple bullion cubes into your large travel mug (I used the one I brought my coffee in), add some dried minced onions, and fill with water. Make sure you either use hot (nearly boiling) water, or use a microwaveable cup, and microwave the whole mix until it's hot.

Comments

[Traci1224]

reminds me of the "That Girl" episode in the 1960 where she went to the automat and made ketchup soup for free. gotta be old to remember but fond memries indeed.

[kirnex]

Actually a great idea.

There's a recipe on allrecipes.com for slow-cooker pulled beef or roast (think au jus) where it calls for french onion soup (I guess that, technically makes it other than au jus, but anyway...) Unfortunately if you have an allergy to gluten (i.e. wheat, barley, rye) it's hard to find canned french-onion soup without a thickener that's wheat-based (i.e. "modified food starch"). This will do the trick, and for that I thank you! :-)

[Wicken]

I believe that the classic Lipton's is gluten-free (I use it and I'm not dead yet!), but it is not thickened. It's just a packet of dry. If you need to, you can blend in some tapioca or corn starch.

[kirnex]

Thanks, Wicken. I'll have to check that out.

[Appollo64]

That's 10 calories for the cubes, but also 76% of your daily sodium intake

[TheNetwerk]

Only in America.

[NathanaelScheffler]

a great way to add calories to onion soup is to add a slice of bread with melted cheese on it. It also makes it taste so much better!

[Wicken]

The dried onion is a good idea! At bulk stores around here, you can often buy inexpensive dried veggies, and instant soups, for very cheap. I used to do DIY instant soups all the time. One of my favourite things to do was to throw dried veg and stock into a thermos, add noodles and boiling water, cap and carry to school. Hot, cheap soup on a cold day is win. A tablespoon of couscous or bulgur is also a nice addition.

[freakinslop]

okay, but it seems that it would be way too salty, dried onions are always too salty

[taraist]

They should just be dried onion, no salt. You could of course always dry your own, to be even cheeper, and grow your own to be even cheeper still! Now all I need is an instructable for making bullion cubes. Pref. vegetarian... I also use "chikin" flavored. Add some other dried veggies and mabey dried parsley and paprika! Yum!

[Aerospaceman]

Not a bad idea until you see the sodium count go off the scale.

[grant19930]

It like to say that at HEB or Walgreens where i live, ramen costs 15 cents. And it tastes a hell of a lot better.

[Shark500]

does it actualy taste good though?

[Crash2108]

No.

[pir8p3t3]

I enjoyed it for lunch today. Some may disagree, but I think it's tasty.

[thingygoboom]

It is tasty for people who normally like french union soup and who arent really insane

[zer0vector]

I've made this for a quick snack at work. I used the low sodium bouillon granules instead of cubes to cut down on the salt content. Tasted pretty good.

[pir8p3t3]

After trying the low sodium bullion, I have to suggest it!

[Aeshir]

Sodium or sodium chloride??

[redfangratthing]

this is actually pretty good

[InfamousKirch]

I tried it ... Didn't really enjoy it much, it's difficult not to end up with onion slurry at the bottom of the bowl.... crackers made it alot better, it was alright with rye bread too.... just don't drink apple cider when you eat this & it will be alot better.

[grendel1097]

It's "quick and easy", I'll give you that. But when the going rate for frugal shoppers is less than $.10/pack, I'll rather take the dried onion and add them to the ramen. Going along this theme, I've spent some money on furikake and added that to my ramen with great success.

[sumguysr]

bah, cruton and bread aside, its not french onion soup without booze. you need to add some brandy or sherry or madeira. I suppose you could get some brandy flavored powder from a kitchen supply store to add and make it real. You can freeze dry your own onions using a chest freezer and a belljar/vacume pump. Maybe I'll add an instructable on it just as soon as I get the equipnment to take pics of.

[canida]

This sounds like primo student food, and probably a fine break from the equally-salty ramen.

Of course, I know someone who got scurvy from eating nothing but ramen, so do make sure you break it up with some fruits and veggies on occasion.

If you want to make the (only slightly) more complicated version at home, here's my recipe for Onion Soup.

[theRIAA]

"for less than the cost of ramen noodles" i got a 48 pack at costco for $4.... ...drinkable ramen anyone??!!??

[LasVegas]

…And check out that sodium content and lack of nutrients. Honestly, caramelizing some fresh onions and adding some beef or vegetable broth make for great onion soup. Of course to make it French, you need to add a crouton and cheese.

[pir8p3t3]

Note: you're talking about "great" soup, and I'm talking about "instant soup for less than $0.25" Also I can keep the ingredients for 10 of these in a sandwich bag.