French Onion Soup - an Easy Guide to Make a Single Serving of French Onion Soup

Onion Soups were very popular in Roman times and carrying throughout history but the modern French Onion Soup originated in France in the 18th Century gaining in popularity in the 1960's to present. The soup is onion based with a meat broth and usually topped with bread or croutons covered in melted Gruyere Cheese.

French Onion Soup is by far one of my favourite soups. It has such amazing flavour that is achieved though very simple cooking methods, and using left over ingredients you can pull together a single portion soup in about 45 minutes. Add some left over salad and this entire meal is exceptionally tasty and amazingly simple to make for a solo night in.

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I will be explaining how to make a French Onion Soup and Salad

MEAL FOR ONE

Prep Time 5 min

Cooking Time 40 min

Broil time 1 min

Materials Needed

1 Oven Proof Soup Bowl

Stove top and broiler

cheese grater

2 pots ( 1 medium for onions and 1 small for broth)

Ingredients :

For Soup

- 2 cups Beef broth ( Pre-made or use bouillon cubs/liquid) I used a liquid beef bouillon

- 1 Yellow onion (medium sized)

- 1-1/2 TBS balsamic Vinegar

- Left over baguette or 1 pc of bread

- 1/2 cup grated Gruyere Cheese (You can use mozzarella or Provolone cheese, it will be good but not the same, I suggest you spring for the Gruyere)

- 3tbs Butter

- Salt and Pepper to taste

For Salad

- Romaine lettuce

- Caesar salad Dressing ( I make my own I'll add the recipe at the bottom- Its soooo good)

- Lemon

- Pepper

- Croutons optional

Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe

- 1 TSP Anchovy aste

- Juice from a half lemon

- 2 TBS Olive oil

- 1 cup Mayonnaise

- 2 cloves garlic chopped

- 1 TBS Warcestershire sauce

- 1 TBS Dijon mustard

- 1/4 Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

- pinch of salt

- lots of pepper

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix. Allow the dressing to sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours for flavors to blend together ideally make this a day in advance of its use. It will last 2 weeks in the fridge.

Step 1: Cooking Process Made Easy

1 - Peel and chop your onion and add it to a medium sized pot with 3 TBS of melted butter over medium heat

2 - Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to the onions and stir to mix with melted butter

3 - Let the onions cook and caramelize stirring occasionally for around 20 minutes or until beautifully brown

4 - While the onions are cooking get your broth to temperature in a separate pot over medium heat

5 - After the onions are caramelized add in 1/1/2 TBS of balsamic vinegar, stir and cook additional 2 minutes

6 - Add the 2 cups of hot broth to the onions bring to a boil, reduce and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

This last cooking step will help blend the flavour of the onions through the broth creating a very rich and delicious finished soup.

Step 2: Broiling Process Made Easy

1 - While your broth and onion mixture is simmering turn on your broiler

2 - After 15-20 mins remove the soup from the heat and pour it into an Oven safe bowl

3 - Cut up the left over baguette

4 - place as many pieces as you can fit into the bowl on top of the soup

5 - Grate the Gruyere cheese to generously cover the entire top of the bread and soup in the bowl

6 - Place in the oven to broil for about 1 minute or until the cheese has melted and begun to turn golden brown.

7 - Remove from oven and place on a plate then prep salad

** Garnish with green onion for a little extra onion kick (optional) **

Step 3: Eat and Enjoy !!

1 - Add salad to plate and dress salad with;

-Homemade Caesar salad dressing, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, pepper and juice from 1 lemon slice

*** Pro Tip - at any point during this cooking process where you have a few minutes to take a break, go to a computer or TV and find a movie you want to watch and set it up ready to go. This will be important for when you are done cooking and ready to eat all alone you can have something ready to watch lined up. This is what I did for about 4 years while in University***

*** Pro Tip # 2 - don't worry if your have a massive onion the bigger the better in my mind***

I hope some of you will try this simple and easy way of doing French Onion Soup, crack open some wine grab some left over supplies and enjoy the process of this delicious meal for one. A bonus to this soup is the smell that will fill your kitchen. The onions cooking in the melted butter is sure to help even the fullest of people develop an insatiable appetite.

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