French Onion Soup with Cheesy Garlic Bread

I make use of what I have whenever I cook. I guess it's every homemaker's instinct to make every penny counts. I will never purchase an ingredient if I know that I have only a one-time usage for it or if I don't really know what else I can cook with it besides the one recipe I know. One example is my weekly purchase of bread. I usually buy wholemeal and white sandwich loaves which are value-for-money in terms of versatility and nutritional value. I rarely indulge in fancy French loafs or crusty breads for soups.

The savings may not be much but these days, BUDGET is everything and frugality does help in many ways.


Serves 3

Onion Soup Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
4 large brown onions (sliced)
6 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Cooking:

• Heat soup pan on medium-high heat.
• Add 1/3 of the onions and sweat until they are slightly softened.
• Repeat the same process for 2 more times. **Do this only if soup pan is small, to ensure even sweating of onions.**
• Continue for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly until the onions are caramelized and browned.
• Add chicken stock and red wine to onions.
• Bring to boil and simmer on low heat for 1/2 hour.

Cheesy Garlic Bread ingredients:
cheddar or mozzarella cheese
garlic (chopped very finely)
bread
parsley

Preparation:

• Grill 1 side of bread for 5 minutes on medium high heat.
• Remove from oven, turn bread over, scatter garlic on top.
• Spread cheese to cover bread.
• Grill fro another 3 minutes until cheese is melted.
• Sprinkle parsley over and grill for another 2 minutes.

Serve onion soup with garlic bread.

**Notes:
I didn't add any sugar when caramelizing the onions because I don't really like to create artificial sweetness for the soup and I think the sugar only acts as a catalyst to speed up the caramelization. I noticed that the onions added natural sweetness to the soup when they had been caramelized perfectly.