I’ve been a vegetarian since the summer of 2004 and there aren’t that many foods I miss. To each his own though and I never am one to preach my views. What I am here to tell you though, is that I really missed French onion soup. What isn’t there to like about a warm bowl of yumminess topped with baguette and loads of melted cheese?
Sadly, typical French onion soup is made with beef broth and for the longest time I assumed this was a food of distant memory.
However, after a recent trip to France with the boyfriend, I decided to make him a French-themed dinner. He isn’t a vegetarian (and says he isn’t a fan of soup?) but I decided it was time to experiment to see if I could make a version of this favorite food of my past that I could have once again.
I researched recipes around the web and combined several to make this version — which I think is perfect. The non-vegetarian, soup-disliking, not-even-the-biggest-fan-of-onions, boyfriend even said this was good!
Ingredients:
- 4 large onions
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 T butter
- 4 C vegetable broth
- 1 T vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
- 1 T herbs de provence
- 1 t thyme
- 1/8 C red wine vinegar
- 1/8 C apple cider vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- baguette slices
- gruyere cheese, shredded (lots of it)
Directions:
I made this in the crockpot, but if you don’t want your house to smell like an awesome caramelized onion all day, I’m sure stove top would be fine and you would just lessen the cooking time by a lot.
Cut onions in half pole to pole and slice. Dump all the onions into your crock pot, top with oil and butter. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, then bump to high for an hour. You can stir occasionally, but if you aren’t home, no worries. The onions cook down and start cooking in their juices, only getting darker when you bump the crockpot to high.
When the onions are finished, keep your crock on high and add your broth, Worcestershire sauce, herbs, and seasoning. If you aren’t vegetarian, regular Worcestershire sauce is fine. And in fact, you could use beef stock, too if you want. The original recipes all call for sherry. However, I don’t like keeping alcohol in the house and found the vinegar blend to be a wonderful substitute. If you have sherry, that would be fine to use here though.
Continue cooking for an additional hour on high. Use this time to slice up your baguette into one inch slices and shred your cheese. Toast a few slices under the broiler until crispy and set aside.
After the soup is nice and hot, ladle into a stoneware bowl (or any bowl you have that can go under the broiler). Top the hot soup with your toasted baguette slices and then add lots of shredded cheese. Place under the broiler and watch the magic happen.
Stop & See 