Vegan French Onion Soup

We love re-creating recipes for things we enjoyed out and about. We were craving a yummy French Onion Soup like we had in Paris awhile back, but we’ve steered away from eating so much meat recently. So I was challenged with creating a vegan soup. Of course a little piece of toast with some gruyere on top wouldn’t be bad either. We’re happy this came out so well, was full of flavor and we didn’t miss the usual beef stock.The onions need to caramelize for roughly 45 minutes over low heat until they begin to take on a golden hue. This is the perfect time to use your veggie scraps to make a quick stock while the onions are cooking away. I added button mushroom stems, carrot, celery, garlic clove and 1 bay leaf. It was full of flavor and color just as the onions were done cooking.

1 Tablespoon organic cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon butter

1 large white onion

1 large red onion

1 bunch of green onions (save a few to sprinkle on top)

1 sprig of fresh thyme (or ¼ teaspoon dried)

1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt

2 cups of vegetable stock (ideally homemade)

Optional: 1 Tablespoon honey to balance

Method

Cut the onions into half-moons. Cut the stem and root ends off and peel back the skin. Then, cut the onion in half from the north pole to the south pole. Now cut each half into thin slivers working from the north to south poles. (*If making homemade vegetable stock, save the trimmings for it)

Wash the green onions to remove any sand. Then, cut them into a small dice. Save a few of the green tops to sprinkle on top of the soup.

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat (cast iron or enameled cast iron are perfect for this).

Melt the butter and add the olive oil. Then, add all the onions, thyme, and sea salt.

Reduce heat to low and allow to caramelize, stirring every few minutes for approximately 45 minutes.

Add 2 cups of strained, homemade vegetable stock.

Allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Taste to determine if a Tablespoon of honey is needed to balance the flavor.

Serve as is or top with a piece of toast.