I made it this way because I had never made soup before. I am not necessarily recommending it as a way to always make soup. It is written like a recipe but should really read more like “Then, I…”

1) Quarter half of an onion. Drop the quarters carefully into a saucepan, the bottom of which is coated in olive oil and very hot, over medium-high heat. Sear the onion quarters, and when the bottoms are a nice brown, cover them in salt, pepper, garlic-herb blend, and a dash of soy sauce, turn down the heat, and cover the pot.
2) Slice a third of a large portobello mushroom into thin slices about three centimeters long. Add them to the pot.
3) Boil water in a teakettle and add it to the softened onions and mushrooms, to cover plus a little more. Toss in a little more salt.
4) Once that’s been simmering busily for awhile, add a couple of reconstituted shiitake mushrooms and a tiny splash of their liquid (it tastes strongly of shiitake, so be very careful). [If you are me, this is where you add too much shiitake liquid and turn your soup vaguely Asian, so you quickly add another third of the onion to the mixture and boil that til it softens to even the flavor back out.]
5) Taste the soup periodically and add whatever you think it needs. Don’t rush it, it needs to cook down, since right now it probably tastes like good soup with too much water in it.
6) When the soup is about how you like it, add a splash or two of good vegetarian soup stock, which somehow magically takes it from “meh, this is fine” to “man what tasty onion vegetable soup!” Then, take a heldheld immersion blender and whiz the soup for a few seconds to give the broth more body.
7) To the embodied (haha) soup add a fist or two’s worth of rice leftover from two days ago. WARNING: This rice will suck up ALL THE LIQUID and give you soft stewy warm goodness. If you want it to stay soup, beware. [I also added half a medium bunch of lovely chard, sliced into ribbons, because it is full of vitamins; it was okay, but I’m not sure it was best for the soup. In the future I will probably add broccoli or some kind of green bean.]
8) Crack in an egg; in a few minutes when the whites are setting, whisk it into the soup/stew.

Delicious! …If you like onions.