I love French onion soup in restaurants, the way they come in a little clay bowl all bubbling over with melty cheesy goodness. They can do that because they can stick the whole bowl in a hot oven and let it broil the bejesus out of the cheese. But we can’t, mostly because my mom and Yang teamed up against me to prevent me from purchasing 4 ramekins for $3 at TJ Maxx.

But it’s okay, I’m not bitter. Because I figured out another way to get practically the same delicious result.

Basically first you make French onion soup in a pot on the stove. I prefer Elise’s version over at Simply Recipes, even though she, too, says to do the oven bit at the end. Simply ignore step 3, and do like follows instead:

First you get some bread. Hamburger buns split in half will also do. This is what we had.

Then you get some garlic and put it through the garlic press (Anthony Bourdain be darned). Then you smear this lovely garlic mush over the top of each bread piece. Then you brush the top with olive oil…

…And stick it in the toaster oven on “bake” for however long it takes for the top to get golden brown.

Then you put cheese on top of the bread. We had slices of Swiss, which, if you fold the corners in, kinda fits perfectly on a Trader Joe’s hamburger bun. Now you know…

…And switch the toaster oven to broil, whereupon it doth broil until the cheese bubbleth.

And then, when the bread is yummy, and the soup is done, you do this:

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In the end, equally delicious as the restaurant version, AND we managed to use up 4 more onions out of our Costco onion bag. Hooray!

ADDENDUM: The only downside is that hours later, I still can’t sit in the kitchen without eyes stinging and nose running. I need to work on this.