French Onion Soup. I did this one last year and now it’s better. Rich, decadent and you will burn your mouth. It’s a little different than traditional French Onion but the nuance is where we shine.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and tell me what it felt like when you seared your tastebuds off.

Vegan French Onion Soup. J’adore.

IMG_1467 2.jpg — VEGAN FRENCH ONION SOUP

prep time: 25 minutes
cook time: 120 minutes

You can cook it for longer (I did, and I recommend it) but an hour and a half should cut it.

This recipe requires you to dice up lots of onions and caramelize them. Then you will deglaze the soup and add broth…then cover with a crostini and top with vegan cheese.

First you’re going to dice up all of your onions so, prepare your eyes.

What you’ll need:

3 pounds of yellow onions
olive oil
vegan butter
red onion
shallots
salt

Using a very sharp knife, cut all of your onions up. Specifically, cut them tip to tip and then in half and then cut them all against the grain.

Keep a bowl nearby for all of your compost/scraps and it will make your life much easier. Keep a towel nearby to wipe any onion residue off of your cutting board too!

After you remove the skins and cut them in half. Pop some of those cores out too. You can freeze those for stock!

Now that you have lots of onions appropriately cut and your eyes are back to normal, get out a large pot and douse the b bottom of it with olive oil. Bring it up to medium low heat.

Now carefully, you’re going to add all of those onions into the pot.

You’re going to cook these onions slow and low, like the Beastie Boys song. Add a generous pinch of salt.

Give everything a gentle stir. While the onions are going, you’re going to cut some more onions.

Grab like three or four shallots and cut them in the same fashion you cut the onions.

Now you’re gonna cut that red onion. Do it the same way.

Now give your onions another gentle stir. You should do this every five or so minutes. Just make sure they aren’t browning or. cooking too fast. Slow and low!

Now keep cooking your onions for an hour or so, stirring every so often.

So now that your yellow onions have gotten a 60-minute head start, you’re going to add your shallots and red onion. This will add a nice range of mid and treble to your mostly bass-heavy mix of French Onion Soup.

Toss a knob of vegan butter in there too. Now cook for thirty more minutes.

And you should have something like this.

Turn up the heat ever so slightly and be prepared to be more attentive to your onions. You probably have a bit of moisture in the pot now and we’re going to evaporate that and create some beautiful browning on the bottom of your pot.

Let the onions cook and stir them every couple of minutes. Just keep an eye on them because you made it this far.

Now your onions should look beautifully brown and pasty. Scrape the bottom of the pot and if there is browning, we are ready to move on to the next step.

The next step is deglazing your pot, cooking out the alcohol and then adding broth! Here’s where my recipe starts to veer off the path of traditionality.

(I will also list N/A alternatives at the bottom of this recipe.)

What you’ll need:

red wine
amaro (I used cynar) (but also optional)
red vermouth
apple cider vinegar

Add a splash of cynar to lift the brown stuff off the bottom of the pan.

This stuff is great but strong on the palate so be conservative with your splashing!

Give your pot a proper scraping with your spoon and get all of that beautiful fond off the bottom of the pot. Fond is a fancy word for “brown stuff.”

Next! You are going to add half of a cup of red vermouth and then a 1/3 cup of red wine. Toss a nice splash of apple cider vinegar in there.

And now you have this pot of wine and onions.

Bring your flame up to medium, medium-high and let the liquid reduce by at least half.

And now this all will become soup. Specifically, French Onion Soup.

What you’ll need:

vegetable broth/mushroom broth (8 cups)
French bread (or sourdough, hell yeah)
vegan butter
bay leaves
vegan cheese (two kinds if applicable)
salt
pepper

Add your eight cups of broth into your onion/wine mixture. I used four cups of vegetable broth and four cups of mushroom broth but that’s beside the point. I do recommend mushroom broth here though.

Add a generous pinch of salt and a few cracks of black pepper and give everything a stir. Bring everything up to a boil and toss two bay leaves in there. Put a lid on the pot and reduce to a simmer while we get the bread and cheese ready.

Cut up some bread and size it appropriately to the shape of your final serving vessel. Add a little olive oil into a pan and toss in some vegan butter. Throw your bread in there and toast it thoroughly on both sides. Crostini! Repeat for however many bowls you plan on making at once.

Now get out your vegan cheese. Preferably a lighter cheese with higher moisture. If it’s in block/wedge form, grate it down. The whole block. Trust me. Now get out another block and grate that one too.

I used this much and it still could have been more.

Using a ladle, pull some of your soup out of the pot and place it into a broiler-safe bowl of sorts. Don’t overfill it though otherwise you will make a soup mess.

Put the containers on a baking tray to minimize messiness.

Toss your bread on top and then toss a mountain of cheese on top of the bread.

Now turn on your broiler and slide those into your oven. Keep an eye on them. You want the cheese to melt and caramelize some but not completely char to bits.

Pop those out of the oven and —

Don’t eat them yet because you will destroy your mouth.

Okay fine eat, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And yes, under all that cheese and bread, there is soup.

N/A subs —

And for my N/A friends, as a deglaze you can use a red/balsamic vinegar of your preference.

As for a wine substitution, mix a cranberry concentrate juice with a splash of apple cider vinegar and use a half cup of that in place of wine. Pomegranate juice would also work, blending the two together will result in a fun, complex N/A substitute that will round out your final product quite nicely.

Vegan Cheese —
I don’t make money if you click these, for the sake of disclaimer.

Cheese & Thank You “Black Garlic Truffle Fontina” - https://store.veganessentials.com/cheeze--thank-you-artisanal-black-garlic-truffle-fontina-p7451.aspx

Miyoko’s “Fresh Vegan Mozz” - https://store.veganessentials.com/fresh-veganmozz-by-miyokos-creamery-p4700.aspx