Vegetarian Onion Soup

I realize it is no great feat to produce onion soup in vegetarian form. Being an omnivore, I feel the soup usually lacks without some animal fat. In my recipe that comes by way of butter. I find the hardest trick in making the soup is not eating the salted buttery onions while I saute them. Since living with Jennifer I have been working on this recipe. And as with most of my own recipes, it is unwritten and varies each time I create it. Today I did not saute the onions long enough which made for a crunchier soup.

(French) Onion Soup is pretty easy. And while it is rumoured to be the only French dish created in Paris, it is a peasant meal, that seems more at home in the countryside. This is the one dish type of meals I like to make. The ingredients are simple: onions, bread and cheese.

There are many recipes for onion soup, and they vary. Which is why it is an interesting yet simple dish. I think my recipe started, or was based on the America's Test Kitchen version. Although recent reviews of that recipe state to use yellow onions, and for some reason I am using red. Like I said my recipe varies and I almost never use all of one type of onion. (I think last year I once made the soup with four different types of onion!) I think this is an important step although I cannot say I have ever tasted two of my soups side by side to notice if one had more red, cipollini, yellow, or walla walla in it. But you have to figure that different onions give the soup more body, so I use multiple onion varieties. The possible exception is when I harvest the cipollinis from our garden and I might make a soup consisting of only cipollini onions. I also used to use a shallot in my soup, but I have been skipping this ingredient this Autumn. Today I used four red onions and one walla walla.

I half and then slice the onions on the thinner end of the spectrum. I do this with a knife, but if you like thinner more uniform onions I recommend a mandoline. The onions then get sauteed in butter for as long as I can bear. (I do not let them get to the point of browning, but they are usually quite limp and noodle like.) Then I add some vegetarian "beef" stock and an equal amount of mushroom stock. I like my soup to be full of onions, but if you like it to be more broth, measure accordingly. This time I shorted the stock even too much for my taste.

Side note: I cannot remember where I got this information, but I am pretty sure it was NPR. There is an ingredient that I cannot recall the name of that mimics the taste of meat. (I have to say I do not recall as well if it was beef or all meat.) This ingredient is found in mushrooms, soy sauce and red wine. So I feel adding these ingredients to the soup gives it more of the flavor you are lacking from not using real meat stock.

Once I add the stocks, I add a few bay leaves and some fresh cut thyme from the garden. I splash some red wine in and a little soy sauce and simmer for a while. This usually means until I think the soup is ready. Once ready, I put it into small bowls and cut some slices of baguette and place them on top. Usually I try to use stale bread. If no stale bread is available for a proper crouton, then I just toast some fresh bread. My cheese of choice right now is Emmentaler. I'd prefer Gruyere but that is too expensive to use. I think generic Swiss or Fontina would also work and I may have used them in the past. A little time under the broiler and the soup is ready to eat. Not much to it. Onion soup is always a comfort food and is a nice dinner on a rainy December day in Seattle.