Onions

A few weeks ago I had a huge craving for onions, but not just onions, caramelized onions. Now there are not many foods that I won't or can't cook with, I let Mr. Beam have gluten in the house (He lives here too after all) and  I don't have any peppers or eggplant in the kitchen (as I can't have them) but we generally don't have any onions in the house as Mr. Beam cannot eat them. It's been hard cutting onions mostly out of my diet, they are part of the holy trinity in cooking after all. On the rare occasion we eat out I will indulge, or if I'm making soup I can use leeks or green onions, I just can't use any bulb onion or shallot without Mr. Beam having stomach problems.  I love onions but refrain from using them when Mr. Beam is home, it's like how he won't eat taco bell or chips ahoy cookies around me because I can't have them. After a couple of days my craving for caramelized onions grew stronger, thankfully Mr.Beam started working nights that day. :)

On my way home from work I picked up a yellow onion, I put on my playlist of songs and started prepping  my onion filled dinner. What better way to have caramelized onions than in onion soup? It had been grey and rainy out for days and soup sounded perfect.

I looked in my fridge and remembered I also had mushrooms (shiitake and black trumpet) that needed to be used. Caramelized Onion and Mushroom soup? Yes please. After chopping everything it was time to caramelize.  Now to caramelize you can't have the pan to crowded or the heat to high so I had to do it in several batches. 

Thankfully I was finishing a book by the Gluten Free Girl, so I sat on the counter, listened to my music and read, stopping to stir the onions or mushrooms occasionally until they were beautifully golden. It took me over an hour because of how much I was making, but I was able to finish my book, (which I highly recommend even if you yourself aren't gluten free)

It was one of the most relaxing nights I've had in a while, I always seem to forget just how much I relax when I'm in the kitchen. Life seems to just get so busy, always on the go with something to get done, in the kitchen it's like time slows down, the rush of everyday melts away in my kitchen, at least when I'm cooking, doing dishes not so much.

 I de-glazed the pot with some white wine before adding the onions and mushrooms back in.  I then added some vegetable stock, herbs and garlic and let it simmer for a bit.  It was amazingly simple to make and has few ingredients for it's depth in flavor. I simply grated up some white cheese (I think it was Gruyere) and toasted some GF bread to go with it. It was the best onion soup I have ever tasted :)