French Onion Soup - Cooked all day
3 medium onions, sliced (or enough to completely fill your crock pot)
1 stick margarine
6 cups veggie broth
1/4 cup red wine (any wine you like to drink)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1-2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon thyme
salt to taste
1 loaf bread
vegan cheese slices
In a crock pot, cook onions and margarine on low for 10-12 hours. Do not lift the lid during cooking time, tempting though it may be. After cooking, skim off the margarine/butter.
Add broth, wine, balsamic vinegar, mustard, bay leaves, thyme, and a dash of salt to the crock pot. Cook on high for 1/2 to 2 hours. Add additional salt to taste.
You can refrigerate the soup overnight. Just be sure to reheat the soup to a simmer before doing the next step.
Slice bread and toast in 350F oven for 15 minutes, until bread is dried out. Add hot soup to oven-safe bowls. Add bread slices and top with a slice of vegan cheese (mozzarella or provolone). Broil until cheese melts and starts to brown in spots.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
3 onions don't fill up my 4 quart crock pot, but maybe the onions are supposed to be pretty large ones. Anyway, I was afraid that the onions would burn or something in the slow cooker with no liquid, but they didn't. They didn't get as soft as stovetop caramelized onions would, though. I'm not sure if that was the onions I was using or if it was because the slowcooker is kind of steaming them as well; they were as soft and retained some firmness. Also, I would add less balsamic vinegar, and should have added to taste, my bad. All in all this was a pretty good soup though, and even without a "beef" broth the soup came out the right color because of the onions and vinegar.