A modern-ish twist on a French classic, this completely vegetarian recipe can be made in a crockpot. Traditionally, French Onion Soup should have a slice of baguette with Gruyere Cheese melted over it, but I used my homemade sourdough bread instead. To make it vegan-friendly, substitute the cheese with soy cheese. If you’d like to make this in a crockpot, just toss all the ingredients together & cook on high for 1-2 hours. Reduce the heat to low & cook overnight. Ladle the soup into ramekins & bake as per instructions.
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French Onion Soup
- Total Time: 165
- Yield: 8 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
Scale
Caramelizing Onions
- 2 Tbsp canola, safflower, or grapeseed oil
- 4 pounds white or yellow onions, peeled & sliced to roughly 0.5″ thickness (roughly 5–6 large onions)
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
Soup
- 2 Tbsp ghee or salted butter
- 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 cups enoki or crimini mushroom, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbsp herbs de Provence
- 3 tsp thyme, stemmed
- 3 Bay leaves
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup dry white wine (or Riesling), cooking sherry, or light beer
- 10 cups water
- 2 Tbsp of concentrated vegetable stock (such as Better Than Bouillon)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Bread
- 1 Tbsp butter
- Gruyère cheese, sliced to roughly 1/2″ thickness
- Sourdough bread or baguette, sliced to fit ramekins
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven, heat up oil on medium-low heat. In a separate bowl, combine salt, baking soda, & water.
- Add onions to Dutch oven & add the baking soda, salt, & water mixture. Cook for about 15 minutes until onions are golden brown & very soft, stirring constantly. Be careful not to burn the onions!
- Preheat your oven to 400ºF/205ºC.
- In your Dutch oven, add ghee, garlic, mushrooms, parsley, thyme, & herbs de Provence. Increase the heat to medium. Cook for about a minute or two before adding Worcestershire sauce. Stir for about 5 minutes. Add wine to de-glaze your pot & allow soup to come to a boil.
- Slice bread proportionately to the size of your ramekins. Butter the bread & set aside. You can lightly toast the bread before buttering it.
- Return to the Dutch oven & add water & vegetable bouillon. Toss in bay leaves. Stir occasionally & bring to a boil.
- Bring your soup to a simmer by reducing the heat to low. Add salt & pepper to taste. Cover your Dutch oven with a lid, but leave the lid slightly ajar, & cook on low for about 1 hour.
- Place your ramekins on a large baking sheet. Ladle your soup in the ramekins, leaving enough room for the bread. Add slices of cheese on top to cover ramekin completely. Top each ramekin with a bit of pepper.
- Load the ramekins on the baking sheet into the oven & bake for 10 minutes. Switch the oven to broiler & broil on high for about 5 minutes until cheese has melted & browned a little on bread.
- Remove soup from the oven. Sprinkle thyme on top of the soup & serve.
Notes
- You can use vegetable stock instead of the concentrated base. You can also use Vegemite or Marmite since they’re both concentrated yeast!
- Use fresh thyme! You can wash the sprigs & leave them in your soup whole, but be sure to pull them out before serving them.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 150
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stove-Top, Baked, Broiled
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 8
- Calories: 370
- Sugar: 5
- Fat: 17
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Unsaturated Fat: 8
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 36
- Protein: 15
- Cholesterol: 39
Lovely, yum!
It’d be nice to include calorie count too 😛