February Comfort Food

I always make this for the boys in the winter, or on rainy spring days. Something about it tastes like home, and beats the winter blues.

And Reuben, who normally won't touch an onion with a ten foot pole, loves it.

It  certainly isn't the dieter's special, I don't even want to know what the calorie content is!

I make this with as many different kinds of onions as I can find. Red, yellow, green, even scallions and leeks!

Dressed up French Onion

4 lbs of onions (any kinds)

1.5 litres chicken stock

6 cloves crushed garlic

1.5 cups of goats milk yogurt

(plain regular yogurt will work if you can't get goatsmilk yogurt)

4 tbsp butter

1/4 cup olive oil

Sea Salt

Fresh Thyme

Toppings

Day old stale bread or croutons

cheese curds

worchesterchire sauce

black pepper

Chop the onions up fairly small, it might make you cry a little, but it's worth it.

Crush or finely chop the garlic and mix it in with the onions in the pan. Add the butter and olive oil, and saute the onions over med-low heat for about an hour.

 You really want to be sure to cook it slowly, so that they're nice and tender.

If you cook it on low enough heat, you won't have to stir them very often.

After they melt into a nice sweet oniony puddle, slowly add chicken stock. You can add a lot if you want a thin soup, or less if you want a thicker soup. Turn the heat up a bit and add the thyme, and let it stew for a bit. Sometimes I crush the thyme a bit before adding it to bring out the flavour.

Now stir in the yogurt until there are no lumps. The soup will look a little more creamy now.

Preheat your oven broiler, and while it's heating up, toast your bread in the toaster.

Ladle the soup into oven proof bowls. Put the toast on top of the soup, so that part of it is touching the soup but the top stays crispy. (I have bowls that are the perfect for keeping the toast slightly above the soup, because they're just small enough to hold it by the four corners of the toast.)

Sprinkle cheese or cheese curds on top of the toast, add pepper, and worchestershire sauce.

Place the bowls on a cookie sheet, and put them under the broiler until the cheese has melted. (a few minutes is about all it usually takes.)

Take the bowls out and set them on plates and serve. Be careful because the bowls will still be hot!

I serve it with lots of fresh veggies on the side. Reuben likes to add some blue cheese dressing,

Zeke likes his with a little bit of mustard.

And of course, any soup goes great with strong brewed iced black tea;)

Enjoy!