Add Mashed Potatoes To Onion Soup For The Epitome Of Comfort

If "summer" is a four-letter word to you or the phrase "soup season" incites an electric shock of anticipation through your chilly, autumnal, soup-loving veins — then you're in the right place. Today, we're talking about the unlikely culinary mashup straight out of your wildest (or coziest) comfort food dreams.

In this recipe, onion soup meets rich, ultra-creamy potato soup. It's a thrifty way to elevate your mashed potato leftovers into something you're actually excited to eat, rather than performing culinary gymnastics to reheat your leftovers without drying them out. The mashed potatoes here work as a thickener, no flour or heavy cream necessary. Mashed potatoes will incorporate more easily into your soup than flour or cornstarch — no unpleasant lumps or clumps to be seen. Plus, depending on the ingredients you use, swapping potatoes for cream might even make this a vegan dish.

Perhaps best of all, this dish doesn't require any special techniques or culinary prowess. Just whip up a batch of onion soup using your normal recipe, such as French onion soup or Irish onion soup. Then, stir in a dollop of mashed potatoes — that's it. There are no definitive measurements here, so you can add more or less potatoes to make it as thick or thin as you like. But, we do have a few pro tips for making this comfort dish as impressive as it is simple.

Using a quality broth will take this dish to the next level. Homemade beef or chicken stock would create an impressive flavor profile, but vegetable stock would also work for a vegetarian version. You could even bulk it up with a mirepoix to achieve that comforting richness. (Bonus points if you caramelize the onions.)

If you happen to have leftover onion soup in the fridge or a packet of dry onion soup mix, this dish could be a when-worlds-collide fusion of leftovers into a dish that's greater than the sum of its parts. Just be mindful of your soup recipe and take care not to over-salt. The potatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and stock will be plenty savory on their own.

This bulked-up onion soup could totally stand on its own as a warming entrée. But, it would also be complemented by some roasted root vegetables or squash. To lighten it up, you could even transfer the whole batch into a food processor and purée, or hit it with an immersion blender.

To serve, top each bowl with a slice of toasted bread and Swiss, Gruyère, or Irish cheddar cheese, melted in the broiler, and a handful of scallions. Or, for a simpler presentation, garnish with a few drops of aged balsamic vinegar. And don't forget to pair it with a full-bodied wine like Chardonnay or Malbec and a favorite comfort flick.