French Onion Soup Recipe – Vegetarian
Vegetarian French Onion Soup Recipe
I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought it looked so yummy that I’d try it out for myself.
I have this idea that if you eat onions every day, it’s exceptionally good for your health.
I tend to eat those little red onions. I love the zippy flavour – they make your face turn red (not quite as red as the onion itself, fortunately) and your forehead perspire. And because I add in a small pile of the little red chili padi to pretty much everything I cook the chilis that you find here (growing by the roadside) in South East Asia – you can imagine that it’s more than just my forehead that perspires!
Apparently, eating chilis is good for you if you are on a diet and trying to lose weight. Chilis can help to gobble up the calories, so I hear.
Back to the onions…
Nevertheless, if you don’t enjoy the hot little red devils, just use yellow or white onions – is there a difference between the two? Well yeah, there is. Apparently, yellow onions are best to cook with because they add more flavour to the overall dish.
Here’s a super article about different onions and how they can be used in cooking…
Which Onion Should I Use to Cook With?
If you suffer badly from “tear syndrome” when chopping onions, check out this great post by Faith Kitchn (rather apt name, don’t you think so!).
HOW TO CHOP ONIONS WITHOUT TEARS
Faith and her husband run a fantastic restaurant in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland – my home city, no less.
The restaurant’s name – appropriately so – THE KITCHN.
How do I know it’s fantastic if I have lived in Asia for over four years now?
Well, okay, I’ve not been fortunate enough to visit the restaurant (probably couldn’t afford it anyways), but I’ve been building a website recently about Edinburgh restaurants and The Kitchn has plenty of rave reviews.
Let’s move forward to the recipe for French Onion Soup au Vegetarian
Do note that the salt is necessary to help with the caramelization of the onions. Also, balsamic vinegar helps with the flavouring and it stops the clouding of the soup, which red onions tend to do.
Also note that the cheese may not require quite as long to melt on your dish as it did mine.
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 small (or 2 large) red onions, thinly sliced
- 2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
- 2 (each 48 fluid ounce) cans vegetable broth
- ½ cup red wine
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 sprigs fresh parsley
- 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 thick slices French or Italian bread
- 8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature
- ½ cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
- 4 pinches paprika
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in sweet onions, red onions and salt. Cook for 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are nicely caramelized.
- Mix vegetable broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot. Wrap the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and add to pot. Simmer over medium heat for 20 mins, stirring occasionally. Remove the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in balsamic vinegar and, after tasting, season with salt and pepper if required.
- Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while bread is prepared.
- Preheat oven broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.
- Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl ⅔ full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slice Gruyere cheese and ¼ of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.
- Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal.
Serve immediately!
