Crock Pot French Onion Soup
I love french onion soup, but finding a vegetarian one or a good vegetarian one for that matter is next to impossible. So I decided that it was about time to share my recipe. As you can see, I am still on my soup kick, but I have also been craving the heck out of cheese… so I decided to whip up some vegetarian french onion soup. It was way too hot in my house to make soup, but it still seemed like a good idea to eat soup in the hot weather. I am not sure how this is logical, but I am just going to run with it. I usually make my french onion soup on the stove top, but I wanted to keep my house cool as a cucumber and decided to give this recipe a whirl in my crockpot.
French Onion Soup Ingredients
Ingredients
- 4 Medium Sweet Onions, thinly sliced
- 6 Garlic Cloves, minced
- 4 TBS Butter
- 2 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 TBS Brown Sugar
- 1 Can of Beer (I used Sierra Nevada Pale Ale)
- 64 oz Veggie Broth
- 2 TBS Fresh Thyme
- 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- French Bread
- Gruyère or Provolone Cheese, sliced
Directions
- Set your crock pot on high, then add onions, garlic, brown sugar, butter, salt and balsamic and mix until combined.
Getting the onions ready.
- Cover and let cook for 60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are a bit caramely and brown on the edges. If your onions don’t caramelize in the crockpot, you might have to transfer them to the stove top to help them get there. This is the most important step, so don’t proceed until your onions are caramelized.
- Add in beer (take a sip for yourself, you have been working hard), veggie stock, thyme, and pepper, then turn heat down to low, cover and cook for 6-8 hours. Note: I used a very low-sodium homemade veggie stock, so depending on the stock you use, add additional salt for flavor if desired before you transfer your soup into a bowl.
Beer makes everything better!
- After the 6-8 hours your soup should look a little something like this…
Finished French Onion Soup
- Before serving, cut french bread or a baguette into slices. Fill soup bowls to the top, then cover with slice of bread and a few slices of cheese. I like the cheese dripping over the side of the bowl so that it gets nice and crispy.
- Set your broiler on high and place the soup bowls under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Be careful when serving as bowls will be hot!
Go forth and impress the heck out of your vegetarian friends while keeping your kitchen cool as a cucumber on a sweaty summer day. You are gonna need a cool kitchen because you will break a sweat while you are devouring this soup. 🙂
Heather Balch
How about this: You guys move back up here and I hire you to be my chef? Derika can get all of her squishy time in, I get delicious meals….its win-win!
Paris
Dani
I think this sounds like a fantastic idea!
Madi
Oooo, I like the beer in the stock! I usually use wine, but I’ll give this a shot next time.
Dani
It turned out surprisingly well. I took a risk and I loved it. I was gonna add dried mushrooms like you suggested, but I spaced at the grocery store. Next time!
Kim
I make this often. I use stout beer and add rosemary. Keep cooking! I love your blog.
Dani
Yay! Thank you so much, that really means a lot. I love your stout and rosemary idea, I am putting that on the cue for the next time I make french onion soup. Probably in the fall 😉
ashley
Could you refrigerate after caramelizing over night before cooking the 6-8 hours??
Dani
Hi Ashley,
You can totally refrigerate your caramelized onions before using them. I would just recommend heating them up a touch before putting them in the crockpot the next day. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
ashley
It was amazing! Definitely going to be a regular for us! Thank you so much!!
Dani
This just made my day, thanks for sharing!