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Onion soup is a favourite of mine – it reminds me of a trip to Paris a few years ago and we ate for three nights in a row at fixed price restaurants where we got three courses for about ten euros. Every night I had onion soup! Plus it is covered in cheese and who doesn’t like a dish which is topped with a big cheesy crouton?

I rarely make it at home because I am basically a lazy so-and-so who can’t be bothered putting the time into caramelising onions. I find that if I stand and stare at them they never caramelise, and if I leave them to it, they get crunchy.

So with some Swiss cheese in the fridge from Christmas which was starting to make everything in there smell like Swiss cheese, I decided that I could use my cheese glut along with my onion glut to make something tasty. It will be no surprise to regular readers that once again my slow cooker came to the fore.

I did the onions over night in the cooker. You could whack it on before going to work, but I didn’t want to be chopping onions prior to work and having to go in looking like a crying clown! The cooker and the balsamic do all of the flavour work for you.

Gruyere is the usual cheese but I used Tete de Moine which is what I had in. A good mature cheddar would be a different taste but wonderful as well.

Slow Cooker Onion Soup

Serves 2

• 4 onions (mine were a mix of red and brown)
• Splash of dry white wine
• 1tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Oxo lemon & thyme flavour pot (optional- grate in some lemon zest if not)
• 2 tsp sugar (caster)
• 2 bay leaves
• Handful of thyme
•  1 litre beef stock (I used concentrate from a pouch)
• 4 slices baguette / bread roll
• Generous amount of grated cheese
• Salt and pepper

What you do

• Before bed, or work, thinly slice your onions and drop into the slow cooker with the wine, vinegar, sugar, flavour pot and salt and pepper
• Turn onto slow and leave for anything from 6 to ten hours
• In the morning / after work open the lid and breathe in that aroma. I would eat those onions just like that. In fact, you could use these super charged onions to give some welly to a stew or casserole. The hard work is now done
• Heat the grill and toast your bread- cut into large croutons and rub with garlic
• Put into a large saucepan with the stock
• Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 mins
• Check the seasoning and then pick out the bay leaves and woody bits of thyme
• Decant into bowls, top with bread, cheese and put under the grill until bubbling

Enjoy!