​​Fried Water Is The Easy 4-Ingredient Egg Drop Soup You Need To Try

Soup season is almost here. Of course, depending on your temperature tolerance, soup season can be just about anytime you wish. A sip or a slurp of hot soup carries with it a feeling of comfort and fulfillment. Luckily for your budget-conscious kitchen, creating a satisfying soup with minimal ingredients is absolutely achievable. For a perfectly rich riff on a classic homemade egg drop soup, you need only four basic ingredients, a little bit of time and patience, and a hearty appetite. Try fried water soup, which calls for water, onions, eggs, and olive oil –- along with salt and pepper to taste -– and you'll discover the beauty which lies within its simplicity.

The origins of fried water soup come from the family kitchen of cookbook photographer Guy Ambrosino of the duo Kate and Guy. This recipe is featured in the pair's cookbook, "Onions Etcetera," which celebrates the joy and versatility of their favorite alliums. The soup is easy to prepare and yields a flavorful and filling dish. The focus is on low and slow cooking and the intent is to utilize ingredients that are typically already in your kitchen, particularly if and when there's little else to work with. The four-ingredient makeup of the recipe plays on the natural sweetness of onions brought out by the cooking process as well as the utility of eggs as both a source of protein and flavor.

With an ingredient list that will have you shopping in your own kitchen and a preparation method that requires little more than the time needed to let all the flavors commingle, fried water soup is an excellent take on a classic egg drop with a lot less muss and fuss. It also makes a great base if you do wish to enhance it by adding a kick of umami flavor with seaweed or any other ingredients of your choosing. This vegetarian soup is friendly to your grocery budget and can even be made fully vegan should you choose to use one of the absolute best egg substitutes such as silken tofu.

Of the few ingredients required to make this soup, the most important element is still time. The process of cooking down your onions in olive oil until they've reached a melty and rich texture is what gives this soup such a pleasant mouthfeel. The water is standard for a clear broth-based soup with the additions of salt and pepper to taste. Knowing how to master perfect thick egg ribbons in your soups will certainly come in handy to create spoonful after spoonful of hearty delight. From there, you can modify the soup to your liking or enjoy it as-is.