Vegan French Onion Soup
Cozy vegan French Onion Soup is a perfect winter meal. Let the onions simmer away for the afternoon and by dinner time you'll have a delicious feast! Adapted from America's Test Kitchen.
Equipment
- Dutch Oven (or other oven safe pot with a tight fitting lid)
- Oven safe serving bowls (optional, see note at end)***
Ingredients
Soup
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 5 pounds yellow onions halved and cut “pole to pole” into long, 1/4 inch strips (6 or 7 big ones) (do not use Vidalia, Walla Walla, or other sweet varieties—they will be too sweet)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt divided
- 2 cups water plus extra for deglazing
- ½ cups dry sherry
- 4 cups veggie broth I like to use Rapunzel’s veggie bouillon cubes
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme tied with kitchen twine for easy removal from pot
- 1 bay leaf
- black pepper
Bread
- Baguette sliced into ½ inch slices
- Vegan mozzarella cheese optional
- 1 garlic clove sliced in half
Instructions
- Adjust your oven rack so that your Dutch oven will fit. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place olive oil in bottom of pan and turn pan to coat with oil. Add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, at least 1 hour more (2 hours total, minimum), scraping pot again after 1 hour.
- Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 3-4 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in veggie broth, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.
- For the bread: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and toast under the broiler until golden brown. Remove from oven and rub each slice with an open side of a clove of garlic. Set aside.
- Set individual broiler-safe bowls on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices, garlic side down. If desired, sprinkle with veggie cheese. Place sheet into the oven and watch carefully, removing as soon as toast is golden and cheese is melted. Serve in the bowls, being very careful as they will be hot!
Notes
*This soup takes about 4 hours to make, with lots of inactive time. It’s very easy, but takes a while to develop the flavor. Plan ahead!
**If you don’t have oven safe bowls, or might be serving this to your favorite 3 year old, follow the first instructions for the croutons. Then, instead of placing them into bowls, turn them over on the baking sheet, top with cheese and just broil/toast the bread. Once toasted, add to bowls of soup and serve. They will seem crunchy, but as soon as they hit the soup they will melt right in!