Burgundy: French Onion Soup

This is a classic French dish although it originated in the region of Burgundy. This soup is a very amazing and basic soup of beef broth and onions. The tricky part for me is that i am a vegetarian and despite my ability to eat the occasional fish i never eat meat. So what does one do? make veggie broth of course! This did prove to be difficult though because the flavor of French Onion Soup is that of beef broth. However it turned out really quite well! But be warned that a good broth takes a long time and good French onion soup takes even longer.

We got our ingredients for the soup at the local co-op, trying to emphasize the regional cooking and local ingredients used in many French homes.

ingredients for Veggie Broth:

3 carrots
3 red potatoes
1 medium sized parsnip
1 large onion
lots of garlic
celery
7 cloves
30 pepper corns
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

Start by chopping up all the vegetables and by bringing a large pot with about 5 quarts of water to boil.

 

(all the onions are for later in the game... do not worry)

adding veggies to water

chop chop chop

do not forget your regional wine...

After adding all you vegetables to the water and letting it simmer away for what seems like eons add about 2 cups of wine to the mixture, not to mention any other spices or salt that will bring out the flavor of your broth. 

3 hours later....

You are now ready to start the French onion part of this process. yay!

first strain all the vegetables out of the broth and set aside. Save your broth you will need it very soon. 

To start you will need:

3 TBS butter / 2 TBS oil

4 pounds of onions

2 TBS sugar

vegetable broth

Melt and heat the butter and oil.

add the onions and let cook for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until translucent. Once they have reached that stage add the sugar and let the onions caramelize. 

Once they have caramelized add a cup of the vegetable broth

Add in the remaining veggie broth and let simmer to infuse the veggie broth with the onion flavor. This is also the point when you could add some cognac/ brandy or vermouth. I did not have any on had so i added a little whiskey but the brandy and vermouth would have really made this soup come to life.

NOW FOR THE FUN PART!

 

Cut up small toasts, and create a garlic infused olive oil to brush on to each piece. 

Than grate up a little Swiss cheese.

 

Put the garlic-y toasts in the oven and let them cook up a bit

Then ladle the soup in to oven safe bowls (mine were not oven safe but i was a little worried, luckily theses do not stay in the oven very long)  and put a slice or two of bread on top.

cover those bad boys in lots of cheesy goodness and put under the boiler (on high) just long enough for the cheese to turn a golden bubbly color. remove from the heat and serve. Just be careful not to touch the bowl.

  

This soup was really good. I found the the vegetarian broth was not as rich as the normal beef broth with actually helped me eat and enjoy this soup. Because it is often so rich it can be difficult to eat so the vegetarian option in really the way to go. Even if it is lacking some of the authenticity.