this is consequently really a recipe for chinese hot and sour french onion soup.

or SUPER MEGA AWESOME chinese hot and sour french onion soup. stylized.

the remnant broth of my french onion soup tastes like a chinese soup called hot and sour soup, which makes sense because i used the tamarind as a sub for the wine. 

i will always get hot and sour soup when i go to a chinese restaurant. every time. this is a good find.

onion soup is not something i have a lot of experience with. i've had it made for me by friends of friends, and i've had it in restaurants. i've never made it before. it's the kind of food my mom would eat, but i don't remember her ever making it.

the chick peas are helpful as a meat sub. good idea.

the tamarind soup subs as a fruity red wine very, very well.

it doesn't need extra salt and i may cut out the added salt next time. besides that, i have to say it's pretty good.

so, here's my hacked onion soup recipe, based on some guides online. i never buy onions, this was given to me by the food bank.

- melt 3 tbsp of olive oil margarine in a large saucepan (i bought this).

- add one onion (i have two purple onions) and four small cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp of thyme, one tbsp of basil and one tbsp of cayenne. i also put some (onion) salt and pepper in. i then let it cook on medium for a while.

- dump a can of chick peas in a large bowl (not a normal purchase, a food bank specialty)

- i don't have fancy bread, but i broke up two slices of brown bread that they gave me

- sprinkle some grated cheese on the bread (i'm using mozzarella, which i bought)

- i don't have wine. i do have tamarind soup mix, which they gave me. this is an asian thing. it's a fruit they eat with fish soup. i dumped it into a one quart mixing bowl with a bit of vinegar and stirred it up. it smells like wine.

- after the onions were brown, i dumped the tamarind soup and two beef soup cubes (which they gave me) into the pan and let it come to a boil before reducing heat.

- i let that simmer for about ten minutes to let it boil off a bit

- i then added the rest of the container of vegetable soup broth they gave me, which filled the pan up, and let it go for another ten minutes, until it was broiling.

- i put a tbsp of paprika, a tbsp of cumin and tbsp of hemp seeds (i bought these and put them on everything) in the bowl and dumped the soup in.

- i put the rest of the mozzarella on top of the soup 

- i added some frank's and some more pepper. i would have added a tbsp of nutritional yeast but i'm out.

i am serving it with a side of avocado and orange for key vitamins.

and i'll let you know in a few minutes.

i had eggs again on monday (same thing, exactly) and quinoa on tuesday and wednesday morning. i found some cheap quinoa at the food basics. i did add a can of corn to each bowl, as well as some cherry tomatoes, which are not a part of the standard meal, but it was otherwise pretty much what's on the diet sheet. tonight, i'm making some onion soup, which is a bit of an experiment.

the idea i've settled on is that i'll use the food bank items to embiggen my diet sequence and in the process slow it down a little. i've doubled up on this run, which i do sometimes anyways, because there were items i wanted to eat quickly. i can replace some items - the slim jim can replace the salami or bacon, for example. there are a handful of things i'd buy anyways, but these are largely unusual food items for me, and i asm learning a few new recipes.

so i'm currently cooking the soup and i'll let you know the recipe and how it is, it's a little unusual to say the least.