You guys, SOUP!  I seriously can’t get enough of homemade soup on these chilly late fall days.  I have been making all kinds over here.  But my all time favorite has always been French Onion Soup.  Sometimes I just crave that salty tavern staple but don’t want to head to order it.  Surprisingly I usually have enough ingredients in the house to throw it together.  I have made it a few times now this month and we’re not sick of it yet!  I have got it down to 30 minutes because when you crave French Onion Soup, you crave it now.

There are a lot of recipes out there calling for all sorts of seasonings like bay leaves, garlic, thyme, etc.  While these are all great, I skip them completely and use one simple ingredient.  Wait for it…

To make 4 servings, I simply chop a vidalia onion into about 1 inch slices.  I place them all into a frying pan with a dash of olive oil and the secret sweetener that my friend clued me into… brown sugar!  Approximately 2 tablespoons should do the trick.  This will help caramelize your onions in no time on medium-high heat.

While the onions are sweetening, I put the broth on high.  I use about 4 cups to one large onion in a stock pot.  When the water boils, the onions are ready to be transferred into the pot.  Reduce the heat to medium and all the onions and broth to tango.

In the meantime, prepare your Gruyère cheese.  I prefer to cut them in long, thin slices.

For the bread in your soup, you can go in a few directions…

1. You can simply use croutons.
2. You can slice up French bread and pop it in the broiler for a minute or 2 to brown it.
3. My favorite thing to do is use bread I already have – usually a whole grain of sorts.  If I plan to make onion soup that day, I leave a few slices out to basically dry out.  So glamorous letting your bread go stale, I know.

Now it’s time to put it all together.  Place the bread in your crock.  Ladle the soup in it.  Drape the Gruyère cheese across the crock in sort of a Z.  I find this gives the best cheese coverage.  Pop it into the broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts and lightly browns.

Enjoy!