Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Vegetarian French Onion Soup.

Last time when I went shopping I picked up a huge bag of onions. I always seemed to be running out of them and I figured they would be good for at least a couple of months.

This did not turn out to be so. Last night I was getting something out from the lower cupboard and I noticed that the big bag of onions was looking a bit worse for the wear.

Enter Vegetarian French Onion Soup. I didn't find any recipes online that were exactly what I was looking for (I didn't want to use vegetable stock and I didn't have any Gruyere cheese) so I decided to wing it.

Most of the recipes recommended cooking the onions on low for about 30 minutes. This IMO is a bunch of bollocks. It took over 2 hours for my large pot of chopped onions to break down and become well caramelized.

A bit of this and a bit of that (see recipe below) and it was time for the soup to go in the oven.

A couple slices of baguette went on top.

A generous amount of Parmesan.

And while this did not turn out with the same flavor as the classic French onion soup that is made with beef stock, it did turn out very tasty.

And I did get to try out this really yummy balsamic vinegar reduction:

The soup ended up tasting somewhere between French onion soup and a really good Thanksgiving stuffing. 

Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 yellow onions chopped fine
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 Tbsp of Earth Balance spread
2 pinches of sage
2 pinches of thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 Tbsp of flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of balsamic vinegar reduction
1/4 tsp of honey
2 cups of water
4 Tbsp Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

Add the olive oil, Earth Balance spread and onions into a dutch oven over medium low heat. When the onions become translucent add in the garlic, sage, thyme and bay leaf.

Cover the pot and let the onions cook on low to med low heat for about 2 hours. Make sure to stir the pot about every 20 minutes or so.

When the onions have become lightly browned (caramelized) stir in the flour and let cook another 5 minutes. Then add in the water, vinegar, honey and salt and pepper. Turn up the heat to medium and let the soup simmer until it becomes thickened.

Ladle the soup into two ramekins. Turn your broiler to Hi and top the soup with the slices of baguette and a generous amount of Parmesan. Keep a close watch on the soup after you put it into the oven because it takes a very short amount of time (3 -5 min.) for the bread to become crispy and the Parmesan to brown.

Enjoy!

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!