Onion Soup in a Pot
Fried onions, bouillon, and a fistful of cheese. French onion without the thirty minutes of stirring.
- calories
- 640
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 142
- protein
- 17 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Car camping
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Crispy fried onions | 1 cup | the canned kind sold for green bean casserole |
|---|---|---|
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Beef or vegetable bouillon | 2 cubes | vegetable keeps it meatless |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried thyme | 1/2 tsp | |
| Brown sugar | 1 tsp | |
| Balsamic vinegar | 1 tsp | in a small dropper bottle, or skip it |
| All-purpose flour | 1 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Hard cheese | 1.5 oz | swiss or gouda, cut in thin slabs |
| Croutons or dried bread cubes | 1/2 cup |
Method
- Put the oil in the dry pot over low flame. Stir in the flour and dried minced onion and keep it moving for one minute, until the flour smells toasted instead of raw.
- Pour in 500 ml of water a little at a time, stirring so the flour does not lump. Add the bouillon, garlic powder, thyme, sugar, pepper, and vinegar.
- Simmer eight minutes on the lowest flame the stove will hold. Stir now and then so the bottom does not scorch.
- Kill the heat. Stir in half the fried onions and let them go soft in the broth.
- Float the croutons and the rest of the fried onions on top, lay the cheese slabs over them, and put the lid on for two minutes. The steam melts the cheese without a broiler.
Real French onion soup is thirty minutes of caramelizing onions, which is thirty minutes of fuel you do not have. Crispy fried onions are already browned and already fried, so the sweetness and the fat are done before you leave the house. The dried minced onion goes in alongside them to put back some of the sharp onion flavor that frying cooks off.
The flour cooked in oil first is the only fussy step and it is worth keeping. It gives the broth enough body to hold the bread up instead of drowning it. Cheese melts under a lid on residual heat, so there is no broiler and no second pot. Hard cheese travels for days unrefrigerated; soft cheese does not, which is why swiss or gouda and not the low-fat havarti this came from.
Packing
Everything dry except the cheese and oil goes in one bag: fried onions, minced onion, crumbled bouillon, spices, sugar, flour, croutons. The fried onions crush in a pack, which is fine. Cheese and the oil bottle ride on their own.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken turned in at the simmer makes it a real dinner.
- Instant mashed potato flakes, a spoonful at a time, turn the leftovers into something you can eat with a spoon in the cold.
- Swap the croutons for a crumbled ramen block if that is what you have.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/skinny-french-onion-soup