Onion Soup, Take 1

Secondary title: HE LIKED IT!

I admit that I am not the best cook.  Fortunately for me, I am not terribly picky.  A little more unfortunate, though, is the fact that my family members are not huge fans of what I create.  (If they don’t cook something, they are going to be stuck with whatever I make.) I do try to get creative with ingredients I have in the house, and, as a vegetarian, most of what I use is not very expensive (thus, I don’t worry as much about wasting money if my creation is not eaten by anyone but myself), and by not using meat/chicken/fish, the chance of making a family member ill from undercooking something is significantly decreased!

We are currently, and for quite a while will continue to be, in “soup season”.  This is also “roasting vegetables” season. Winter takes its own sweet time here in Chicagoland.  I happily use the oven to both roast vegetables and, as a bonus, help heat the kitchen during the fall and winter months.  I decided to try making an onion soup. I did look on-line for some general ideas, but, more or less, went rogue.  I have noticed that I sometimes spend so much time looking for recipes which include ingredients I have at home that, by the time I find something, I am too hungry to spend the time preparing it and opt for more immediate gratification.  Also, I do not consider myself a lazy person, but, sometimes in the kitchen, I get lazy. One of the beauties of cooking as opposed to baking in my opinion is that measurements do not have to be quite as precise. I will just toss stuff together.  Granted, it makes it a bit more difficult to share a successful recipe with someone or accurately recreate it, but, sometimes you just have to go for it and hope for the best!

My soup included roasted onions (I used 2 different types because I had 2 different types), vegetable broth, cumin, salt, granulated garlic, rosemary garlic seasoning, black pepper, white wine vinegar, and some flour.  There were 32oz of vegetable broth and “some” of everything else. I did puree about ¾ of it in a blender as well once it was heated up. My final product was a bit too strong from the vinegar side of things but otherwise not bad.  I poured myself a bowl over half of a bagel (since I did not have a baguette) and added some shredded cheese (whatever I had in the fridge). When all was said and done, I enjoyed it. My husband did not care for it too much; he thought it was too spicy and had too much vinegar flavor.  I could not be too upset with that. Historically he has said that I under-season food.

The highlight of the soup experience was when my son tried it and said it was good.  He does not often compliment me on my random food creations. This was a HUGE win in my book!  Granted, he would only have soup with oyster crackers, and, fortunately, I happened to have one little packet from a restaurant.  Success! I don’t know how many moms get excited when their teenage boy enjoys a cup of soup, but I was grinning from ear to ear! (Maybe that was more inside my head, but I was so happy about it!)  My daughter has yet to try it, so I do not yet have a final tally of family responses. In my opinion, if either my husband or at least one of my kids likes something I create in the kitchen, I count it as a success!  The jackpot will be when I prepare something (without a formal recipe) that everyone likes. I would love to see that move from a dream to a reality some day before the kids move out!

My onion soup was enough of a success that I will try tweaking it again in the future.  Wish me luck!