Vegan French Onion Soup Two Ways + Recipe Card

How to convert the classic French onion soup into a more substantial meal.

As far as I’m concerned, a cookbook must include French Onion. It is one of our favourite soups and one that I have made for many years.
Onion soup can be tricky though, despite its seeming simplicity. My ex-mother-in-law, Judith, referred to it once as tasting like canned beef consommé (something we’re not hugely aware of in the UK), and there is certainly little point in eating the tinned stuff, which is basically beef stock with some token onion flakes sprinkled in it for good measure.
I have made onion soup without stock and with stock and, providing you cook the onions slowly, over a low heat, you can be guaranteed of a rich flavour that tastes only of rich, deep caramelised onions. I recommend using a lighter vegetable bouillon, like marigold, so that it doesn’t overwhelm, but if you only have water, use that.

Of course, as far as I’m concerned, the soup merely exists to mop up the delicious cheese encrusted croutons that float on the top. I like my croutons large. I just get great pleasure from tearing into the bread which has a soggy underbelly from the soup, the strands of cheese drooping over the side of the bowl, to be peeled off with your fingers once the soup has all gone. Use the best quality vegan cheese you can find; you’re looking for melty (tricky, I know) and flavour. Full recipe here on my website.

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Last night I decided to split the basic onion soup into two, making one traditional version and one non-traditional. The non-traditional version didn’t follow much of a recipe. I simply had an idea of filling a baby pumpkin with soup and baking it in the oven. The heat from the soup, tenderising and flavouring that sweet, earthy pumpkin. Minimal washing up and when did you last eat a soup bowl?

I made this second, slightly recherché soup into a creamy version, firstly adding half a teaspoon of garam masala for a little spice, then stirring in a generous spoonful of plain vegan yogurt, plus some unopened Christmas vegan blue cheese for good measure. I also sprinkled over some parsley but I wouldn’t recommend you do this: the parsley surprisingly conflicted with all the other flavours. I suspect that a few thyme leaves would have served better.
I had little idea how this would actually turn out but we were both pleasantly surprised. The onion soup worked well with the blue cheese, and the richness was countered perfectly against the sweetness of squash. Two perfect soups for these temperamental early spring days.

CREAMY ONION SOUP IN A PUMPKIN – serves 2, very generously

Ingredients:
As French onion soup plus
Half a teaspoon Garam Masala
Dessertspoonful of vegan plain yogurt
20g vegan blue cheese
2 small pumpkins or squash
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 200c.
Cook the soup as French onion soup, except add the garam masala to the onions before you add the stock, cooking for a minute or two to activate the spice. Then proceed as per recipe card below.
Once you have seasoned the soup to your satisfaction, remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, prepare the squash. Carefully cut the top off, reserving to one side. Scoop out the innards of the squash with the back of a spoon, removing all the seeds and stringy bits.
Place the prepared squash on a roasting pan.
Stir the yogurt and vegan cheese into the slightly cooled onion soup and divide between the two squash.
Replace the ‘lids’ or tops of the squash and cook in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour. Once the squash yields to you pressing it, it’s ready. Any longer and it will collapse and take your soup with it.

Here’s a recipe for an even easier soup cooked in a pumpkin with rice, onion and spice.