Sinfully Delicious French Onion Soup

Melt-in-your-mouth amazing vegan French Onion Soup with smoked gouda style cashew cheese. Rich and crave-worthy while being totally whole foods, plant-based with NO OIL! Enjoy with a side salad or roasted veggies for a delicious dinner that won't leave you feeling heavy and bloated.

Yield: 4

Author: Courtney Crary

Sinfully Delicious French Onion Soup

prep time: 10 Mcook time: 50 Mtotal time: 60 M

Melt-in-your-mouth-amazing whole food, plant-based French Onion Soup with “smoked gouda” cashew cheese. Try not to eat all the cheese before serving the soup!

ingredients:

For the Broth

4 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, diced
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
36 oz water
1 cup vegan port wine
1/2 cup white mellow miso paste
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
freshly ground black pepper
salt, to taste

For the Smoked Gouda

4 Tbsp raw cashews
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp white mellow miso paste
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp tapioca starch
3 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp pure maple syrup
½ tsp kosher salt or ¼ tsp table salt

Other

1 whole wheat baguette, sliced widthwise into 1 inch slices
Extra fresh thyme, for garnish

instructions:

How to cook Sinfully Delicious French Onion Soup

For the Broth

Heat a large pot over medium heat.
Once the pot is nice and hot, add in the sliced onions, diced garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and a generous pinch of salt and crack of fresh pepper.
Cook the onions for 25 minutes (set a timer!), stirring occasionally. Towards the end of the cooking time, it may be necessary to use a few Tbsp of water to deglaze the pan and unstick the bottom layer of onions. While stirring, add a few Tbsp of water at a time to the pot to release the stuck-on bits. Do this as needed to keep the bottom layer of onions from burning until the 25 minutes is up.
Add the port wine to the pot and bring to a simmer.
Simmer, stirring occasionally, until all the moisture is gone from the pot. Remove the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
In a separate bowl, whisk the miso paste with part of the 36 oz of water until it is smooth and free of clumps.
Add the miso mixture, the remainder of the 36 oz of water, and nutritional yeast to the pot. Bring to a simmer while you make the cheese sauce.

For the Smoked Gouda Sauce

In a high-speed blender, combine the cashews, water, tapioca starch, lemon juice, maple syrup, miso paste, nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, and ½ tsp kosher salt. Blend until smooth.
Pour the cheese mixture into a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer.
As the cheese sauce simmers, stir constantly for about 3 minutes, until the sauce has thickened into a fondue-type texture. Remove from heat and set aside.

Put it all Together

Under a broiler on high heat, toast the baguette slices until they are light golden brown.
Spread a generous amount of cheese sauce on one side of each baguette slice.
If you have oven-safe bowls, fill each bowl with the soup mixture and place two slices of cheese-y toast in each bowl. Put the bowls on a baking sheet and place directly under the broiler until the cheese slightly browns (keep an eye on it to make sure the toast doesn’t burn).
If you don’t have oven-safe bowls, place the slices of cheese-y toast on a baking sheet and place directly under the broiler on high heat until the cheese slightly browns (keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn!). Fill each bowl with soup, then place 2 slices of cheese-y toast on top of each bowl. Allow it to sit in the soup for 5 minutes before serving.
Garnish each bowl of soup with some fresh thyme and enjoy!

Calories

447.66

Fat (grams)

6.08

Sat. Fat (grams)

1.12

Carbs (grams)

78.58

Fiber (grams)

8.29

Net carbs

70.29

Sugar (grams)

14.42

Protein (grams)

20.38

Sodium (milligrams)

2754.98

Cholesterol (grams)

0.16

This caloric estimate is based on each person consuming 1/4 of the baguette (which is possible, but unlikely)

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @notlikemama on instagram and hashtag it #notlikemama

Created using The Recipes Generator

About the recipe:

If I’m being honest, I was never a big French Onion Soup fan. It’s basically a bowl of melted cheese, which, while delicious, can leave you feeling all bloated and gross. HOWEVER, this plant-based version has changed my mind! It’s somehow just as rich, but doesn’t leave you feeling tired, oily, and crampy after a big bowl. That’s my kind of soup!

On a recent episode of my podcast, Plantiful Kitchen, my cohost, Kevin, and I decided to give veganizing this iconic soup a whirl. As I wanted to keep my version oil-free, I made the vegan cheese from scratch. If you do consume oil, you could easily swap out the homemade cheese for your favorite brand of vegan slices and save yourself some time. However, this mock smoked gouda turned out so amazing, I was tempted to skip the soup and just winnie-the-pooh-it out of the sauce pan.

If you’re new to vegan cooking, there may be some unfamiliar ingredients listed above. Let’s demystify those.

White Mellow Miso Paste- a widely available variety of miso, which is a fermented soy bean paste commonly used it Japanese cooking. Find it in the produce section near the tofu.

Nutritional Yeast- a deactivated yeast that looks like yellow fish flakes and has a nutty, cheesy flavor. Sold in the bulk section of many grocery stores or in a plastic jar in the health food section. Commonly fortified with vitamin B-12. Delicious and nutritious!

Tapioca Starch- also called Tapioca Flour. Made from the root of the cassava plant. Find it in your local grocery store with all the other Bob’s Red Mill products. This starch reacts to heat, making the cheese sauce thicker and a little stretchy.

Raw Cashews- Okay, everyone knows what those are. But this is a good place to mention that if you do not have a high-speed blender, you will need to soak your cashews for 15-20 minutes in boiling hot water or in room temperature water overnight. This softens the nuts and makes them easier to blend into a creamy sauce.

RECIPE NOTES:

TIME!!!! It takes time for those onions to caramelize, which is why it’s helpful to set a timer. Let them cook for the entire 25 minutes, stirring them occasionally to keep from burning and deglazing with a few Tbsp of water as needed.
If you are not vegan, you can purchase regular Port wine. The alcohol evaporates as you cook it, leaving behind the rich sweetness from the port and a purple hue to the onions. Continue to cook the onions until all the moisture from the Port is gone.
As I stated above, soak your cashews if you do not have a high-speed blender.
If you don’t like smoked things, leave out the liquid smoke from the cheese sauce. It will still taste great!
To keep this recipe whole foods, plant-based, use a whole wheat baguette or another whole grain variety of bread.
As you can see from the photos, the cheese sauce doesn’t brown very much! It will brown slightly in spots. However, it’s still worth it to leave it under the broiler because the soup simmers and softens the bread….IT’S SO GOOD.
Last, use fresh thyme! I know it’s kind of expensive and you probably won’t use all the thyme that comes in the package, but it makes a HUGE difference.

Serve this soup with a side salad or roasted veggies for a complete meal. Enjoy with your family while wearing berets and reciting all the french words you know. Maybe wash it down with a little glass of that leftover port wine.

If you make this recipe, let me know! Tag me on instagram @notlikemama so I can see your creation!

Happy Cooking,

✌️Courtney