French onion soup is usually made with white onions but due to having a rather large bag of red onions in the house I decided to make this batch with red onions.  The red onions offer a sweeter, possibly slightly more sickly but not unpleasant, flavour.

Prepare yourself for a whole lotta tears when preparing the onions, there are quite a lot to get through,

• 1kg of onions (red or white – you could even try a mixture)
• large knob of butter
• olive oil
• 1 tblsp sugar
• 750ml beef stock (this works with vegetable stock if you would like to keep it vegetarian)
• 1 baguette (sliced)
• Gruyère Cheese (grated)

1. Finely slice the onions. I used my trusty food processor to try and keep the tears to a minimum.
2. Heat the knob of butter with a drizzle of olive or vegetable oil to a medium to high heat and fry the onions for about 2 minutes.
3. Drop the heat and add the tablespoon of sugar to help the onions caramelize. Sweat the onions for another 30-40 mins until they are sweet and sticky.
4. Add your stock and continue to cook on a low heat for around 10 minutes.
5. Whilst sweating your onions, place the sliced baguette on a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil and pop in the oven at around 190C until crisp and golden (the croutons in the the picture above are not golden enough – due to an certain impatient lady).
6. Preheat the grill. Place the soup into serving bowls and squeeze on as many croutons as you can on top. Top with a generous mound of Gruyère (again, there is not enough Gruyère in the picture above – due to a certain impatient gentleman (myself)) and place under the grill until the cheese is melted and golden.
7. Serve