Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Back in the day, I used to walk to a little French place called Cafe Marley that was around the corner from my high school. The food wasn't amazing, but their French onion soup was so so good. I'd never had it before Cafe Marley so I was delighted to see my bowl covered in melty-crunchy gruyere cheese! I stopped eating red meat after my freshman year of high school so my year long love affair with French onion soup (traditionally made with beef stock) came to a bitter end. Last March (2010) I stopped eating all meat except for fish so my recent craving for French onion soup could not be made with chicken stock either. I searched foodgawker for a vegetarian French onion soup recipe and I found this little gem...

mmm mmm mmm

A note on stock vs. broth: Usually with meat versions, there is more meat and bones used in a stock than in a broth so it has a richer, deeper flavor. With broth, there is less meat and bones used so the broth could be eaten on its own without being over powering. When we're talking about vegetable stock vs vegetable broth, there isn't a huge difference but I have noticed that the veggie stocks I've found at the market are a little more flavorful. The one I used in this recipe (sorry, forgot to write down the name of it) was an organic one in a white and green carton and I think it had a lot of mushroom infused in it because it tasted really meaty. It was good, and perfect for French Onion Soup.


Yes, chopping the onions is a bitch of a task but it's so worth it. And this soup only took about two hours from start to finish whereas most French onion soups take hours (cooked low and slow). If you're eyes are sensitive to onion, you might want to invest in a pair of onion goggles (no really). My eyes are shielded by the brilliant suctioning action of contact lenses so I always offer to do the onion chopping because I don't like to see my friends cry :). I've also heard that touching cold stainless steel helps. What do you do to block out the onion tears?

So many onions!

The recipe calls for white wine but I'm 19 and I didn't want to go bug my neighbor to buy me a bottle. Their suggestion was to use no sugar added white grape juice in place of the wine but I didn't want to buy that either because I wouldn't drink the rest and they only had huge bottles. So I googled "white wine substitutes" and the best one I found was for a 1/2 cup) to do 3 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tabelspoon lemon juice, and the rest water. It worked out great, it didn't seem to be missing anything at all.

Vegetarian French Onion Soup

(Makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 large onions- peeled and thinly sliced (I used yellow onions)

2 tablespoons of water

Salt + pepper

½ cup nsa white wine, white grape juice, or replacement

3 sprigs fresh thyme

6 cups vegetable stock

1-1inch slice of crusty bread, cubed, per bowl

¼ cup freshly grated gruyere cheese per bowl

Directions

1. Put butter, olive oil, sliced onions, water, and a few pinches of salt into a heavy bottomed soup/ stock pot. Put a lid on the pot and let onions sweat over medium heat for about 10 minutes. They should be beginning to look translucent.

2. When the water has evaporated, remove the lid and turn heat on low, stirring often. The onions will begin to caramelize, it will take about an hour.

3. When the onions are an amber color, add the grape juice, thyme, and stock. Season with salt and pepper. Let this simmer with the lid off for 15 minutes.

4. In the last five minutes of the simmering, preheat your oven’s broiler. Ladle soup into oven proof bowls. Top with cubed bread, then grated cheese. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and place on top rack of oven under broiler for about 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it – there’s a fine line between crisp and burned!