Day 2 - French Onion Soup

Well, on the 1st I got a bit frustrated. I was planning on making cottage cheese and spinach pierogies, and mushroom pierogies, but the dough recipe I was using was tooooooo sticky. I ended up putting it away because I was getting so frustrated, and we had leftover soup instead. This is a pretty basic recipe--onion soup in the crockpot.

This is adapted from Robin Robertson's "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker".

I love onion soup, but I hate to stand there and cook the onions. It takes forever...like an hour! Who has time for that (well, me...but that's another story)?

Robin slices hers into the slow cooker and pours olive oil on them. I made a couple of minor changes to her recipe, and this is what I came up with:

• 6 large yellow onions (sweet onions are best, such as Walla Walla or Vidalia, if you can get your hands on them)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 4 (15 1/2 oz) cans vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (or use this recipe, this recipe, or this recipe)
• 6 slices french bread
• 6 slices provolone cheese

1. Slice ends off of onions and remove papery skin. Slice in half from root end to top, so that when you slice, the rings will already be cut in half. Slice each onion and place in slow cooker.
2. Pour olive oil over onions (use however much seems appropriate to you--I used the lesser amount and the onions were fine). Place lid on slow cooker.
   
3. Cook on high heat for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and well caramelized.
4. At this point, I removed half of the onions and placed them in a marked freezer bag. That is so the next time I want soup, all I have to do is add the stock.
5. Add vegetable stock and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook on high an additional 30 minutes to an hour.
6. To serve, ladle the soup into ovenproof ramekins. Place a slice of french bread and provolone cheese on top of the soup and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Alternatively, place bread slices and cheese on a baking sheet and put them under the broiler. When cheese is melted, remove from oven and place in a bowl of onion soup.
   

We got about 6 servings from this.