I don’t know how your weather has been, but ours is back and forth between warm sunny days and cold rainy days. A nice hot soup helps take the chill off!

Usually, I find onion soup made with beef stock. I both didn’t have any and have been trying to eat less animal products lately. Well, have you ever checked out those French onion soup packet ingredients? We do a lot of label reading due to food allergies and I recall picking one up for sour cream and onion dip. I was surprised to see there actually was no beef in it at all. Just soy. I decided to give this recipe a go with what I know that apparently you can make a dark onion soup with soy.

For added flavor and color, I chose to add mushrooms. I sliced the onion thin and the mushrooms a little thicker since they shrink during cooking. Wipe your mushrooms clean with a damp cloth to limit the amount of moisture they absorb. If you have other meals coming up that use the meaty flavors of mushrooms or if you make veggie stock, save your clean mushroom stems! I ended up using these ones to make a vegan oyster sauce substitute and some mini egg rolls.

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Next, it is time to get the color and flavor out of your mushrooms and onions. You’ll want these on a lower heat for most of cooking as they cook for a good 20 minutes. I started at medium high. The onions will release some moisture so until that cooked off, I left my heat at medium high.

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Once the excess liquid cooked off, I reduced my temperature to medium and them medium low.

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I added some white wine to deglaze the pan as well as some soy sauce to add color and also to make it more concentrated. After raising the heat to medium high, I cooked it down until most but not all of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 or so minutes. I also added thyme and a bay leaf at this point.

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Next, I added water, a pinch of black pepper, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. After cooking for another 20-30 minutes, I chose to add a little extra salt but you will want to taste it and adjust to your own preferences.

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You can serve it as is or you can add toasted bread and regular or vegan mozzerella cheese on top and broil for a few minutes until your cheese is brown on top. In broiler safe bowls of course! If you dont have broiler safe bowls you can also just make cheese toast on a sheet pan and place it on top of your soup.

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We served this with toasted veggie wraps and oven roasted potato wedges for a surprisingly filling meal.

Plus, my kids liked it. The ultimate critics. Hope you enjoy it too!

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