French onion soup is a bistro classic, the most homey and delicious example of good cafe cooking. But only a handful of frugal ingredients make up this restaurant favorite. Onions, broth, salt, and butter mingle in a slow magic that transforms them into a wildly luxurious bowl of silky onions and dark broth. If you’ve only eaten French onion soup in restaurants you’ll be shocked at how easy it is to make in your own kitchen.

Here is a step-by-step recipe for making the best French onion soup you’ve ever eaten. It’s one of the simplest yet most satisfying soups, and one to learn by heart.

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Nothing beats the boost of comforting flavor that chicken broth can add to a recipe, but while we do adore homemade, we confess we don’t always have gorgeous quarts of stock in the freezer. Boxed broth is a convenient shortcut. But the selection of brands out there can be pretty overwhelming, not to mention the fact that broth can now come in boxes, cans, cubes, jars of concentrate, and even little packets.

Since we use it in so many recipes, we decided it was time to do a taste test here at The Kitchn of boxed low-sodium chicken broths, and here are the results!

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Barbecue Turkey Meatloaf

I have been known to say that any cookbook is a weight loss book, because I strongly believe that cooking for yourself at home is the best way to lose weight. I know this axiom isn’t totally accurate (hey, Paula Deen!), but it contains a lot of truth.

Another reason I like to issue this advice is that I’ve seen weight loss and home cooking goals evaporate in the face of recipes that are engineered to be low-cal, low-fat, and low-sodium. Those recipes can also be incredibly low-flavor. Regardless of how “good” the nutrition facts of a dish are, it doesn’t benefit your health or your weight loss efforts if you don’t eat it, or if you’re snacking an hour later because dinner didn’t satisfy.

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Who cooks and eats here: Jade and Toby Keller, son Cy, and dog Dot
Where: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Rent or Own? Rent

Jade and Toby’s kitchen in Thailand feels familiar and inviting at first glance, but if you look closely you’ll notice several elements you don’t often see in American kitchens: a shelving rack for helmets for the couple’s scooter transportation, a (tiny) portable oven instead of a large range for baking, a power converter to operate all the coffee-making equipment.

Those are just some of the ways Jade’s cooking life has changed since she and her husband moved to Thailand four years ago, but you know what? They love it.

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Vietnamese beef noodle pho is an easy soup to fall in love with. Those chewy noodles. That savory broth. The tender slices of beef. All those crunchy, spicy, herby garnishes that we get to toss on top. On a cold evening, after a rough day at work, when we’re sick, on a lazy weekend afternoon — a bowl of piping hot pho is pretty much always a good idea.

Beef pho (pronounced “fuh“!) feels like a restaurant staple, but it’s not actually all that hard to make a quick version at home. This recipe for Quick Vietnamese Beef Pho was one of our favorites from The Kitchn Cookbook, so much so that we wanted to walk you through how to make it, step-by-step.

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This Thai coconut soup is one of my absolute favorite soups for the winter — heck, for any season! With temperatures here in Edmonton, Canada plummeting to -40°C over the last week, this soup — with its delicately sweet, salty, and spicy flavors — has become more than just a craving: it’s a necessity. I love its versatility and how easy it is to make, particularly if you’ve made the curry paste in advance.

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Topsail by Sherwin-Williams, via Houzz

Paint, paint, glorious paint! There’s nothing quite like it to make a ho-hum kitchen sing, and we’ve got 20 examples to prove it. Even better? We’ve saved you the frustration of trying in vain to replicate the look, because every one of these photos is labeled with the exact color and paint brand that was actually used in that kitchen.

So grab those paint-card samples and get to planning! What color will you choose for your kitchen?

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While for a lot of us coffee is an everyday product, that doesn’t mean it’s a simple product. Producing coffee takes a lot of work and a lot of hands, not to mention the work it takes to get it all the way across the world and into your kitchen.

But the beauty of it is that making coffee is an inherently simple act. If you have coffee grounds and hot water, you can make your favorite drink.

Then why do we complicate things?

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My meals this past week have been all about the flavors of the Mediterranean — olives, artichokes, chickpeas, and sun-dried tomatoes. The ingredients I used are simple and budget-friendly, and they are included in multiple recipes so you aren’t left with orphaned bits of this or that in your fridge. The recipes are also all vegetarian so that we can focus on the bright flavors that are highlighted in each dish.

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