French Onion Soup

French onion soup is the epitome of wonderful homey French cuisine. It was served at the cafes around the great market place Les Halles late at night as the people were bringing in their wares.
One of my fondest memories of this dish comes from my Paris high school buddy Rob. He stayed up all night at our ski chalet stirring the pot to serve us this fantastic soup. Perfect after a long day on the slopes.
It is also  traditional to serve on New Year's Eve, which I decided for some friend's coming over last Saturday.
There was one new twist for me, one of our diners was a vegetarian and traditionally this soup is made with beef broth. I was up for the challenge.
I ended up using a combination of recipes with amazing results. I will use the miso in this soup whenever I make it.

Laurie's French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

For the soup

8 cups thinly sliced red and yellow onions
8 cups vegetable broth (or beef broth)
1 /2 cup yellow miso paste
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1-2 tsp fresh or dried thyme

For the croutons

1 baguette sliced diagonally, figure  two 1/4 inch slices per bowl of soup
2 cups grated Swiss cheese*, I used a combination of Comte and Emmentaler
olive oil for brushing on the bread
garlic clove for rubbing on the bread
 * please use good Swiss cheese, no low fat or cheap Swiss from Safeway and stay away from Jarlsberg. Both Trader Joe's and Costco have great Comte, Gruyere, and Emmentaler that are not that expensive.

You are going to slice a lot of onions there's no way around it. I found that using my mandolin made it much easier and they came out such a nice uniform size.
Once you have all the onions sliced heat the oil and butter in a large heavy bottom soup pot.
Add the onions and stir.

It will seem like a lot of onions but they cook down a lot. I start with medium high heat, the trick is to be patient and let them caramelize, that can take 45 minutes to an hour.

They will get quite brown. I found that if I stirred them too much they weren't browning, Genna told me to let them darken, she was right. Don't worry about the brown bits on the bottom of the pan you will be deglazing all that goodness back into your soup.

Once your onions are well browned you are ready to deglaze you pan. Pour a small amount of your soup stock into pan, use your wooden spatula or spoon to work all the dark bits off the bottom, keep adding more stock as the bottom comes clean.
Now for the rest of the ingredients.

Before you add the rest of your stock, pour a cup into a bowl with the miso to make a slurry. I used my immersion wand and was very pleased with how quickly the miso mixed with the stock. Add that slurry, the rest of the stock, vinegar, wine and thyme into the pot.
Simmer for 30 to 60 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.
Now you can prepare the croutons. If you have oven proof bowls to serve it in, you can broil the croutons right in the bowls. I chose to make them on a cookie sheet.
Slice your baguette in diagonal quarter inch pieces, rub them with a clove of garlic and a small amount of olive oil.
Top each slice with your mix of grated Swiss cheeses.

Broil or heat in a hot oven until the cheese is well melted.
Pour the soup into bowl , top with two croutons and serve with a nice glass of red wine if you like.