Why does my veg soup never taste as good as in restaurants/cafes? What's missing?

[pushyparentsru]

Anyone?

soup thread from 3 days ago...

soup thread

Also do a search on MN, there seems to be a soup thread every other week!

totally agree with enid about the sweating of the onions in olive oil and butter. the oil stops the butter from burning and the butter is better for flavour.
i think that recipes nowadays want to make a virtue about everything being quick, but if you don't give onions at least ten minutes gentle frying they always taste raw and spoil the whole dish. it really pisses me off when you see these 20-minute cookbooks and the first thing is 'fry the onion' as if that should take 30 secs.