This is based on the vegan french onion soup recipe I came up with in high school, but it’s taken up a notch with some wild mushrooms. Over the years, I have used different dried wild mushroom blends to make this soup. Basically, I buy the blend I can find in my chain grocery store. Some dried wild mushroom blends have had chanterelles, lobster, porcini, morels, black trumpet. Others have had porcini, oyster, shiitake, and black trumpet. None of the blends have ever tasted bad. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever had leftovers of this vegan mushroom onion soup. It has a way of disappearing!
Just don’t forget to rinse off your dried wild mushrooms before soaking them in boiling water. Sometimes, they have sand and grit stuck in the nooks and crannies. And nothing is worse than ruining an entire pot of mushroom soup, because it’s loaded with gritty sand that could have easily been rinsed off. I have done it. More than once. So, learn from me and rinse those babies super well before adding them to the boiling water 🙂
This recipe for vegan mushroom and onion soup makes 4 servings.
Please enjoy! And discover more UVK recipes, like Vegan Spinach Mushroom Wild Rice Casserole, Vegan Sauerkraut, White Bean and Barley Soup, Vegan Green Bean Casserole, or Wild Rice Mushroom Soup.
French Onion Wild Mushroom Soup
1 ounce mixed dried wild mushrooms, sand/grit rinsed out before soaking (see note above)
8 cups sweet onions, very thinly sliced
3 Tbsp vegan butter
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
Black pepper, to taste
1½ cup broth (vegetable, fake beef, fake chicken, etc)
Salt
1. First, you’ll need to prepare the wild mushrooms for the soup. Pour 2 cups boiling water over the dried wild mushrooms. Cover with a plate or lid for at least 20 minutes (or according to the directions on the package).
2. Then, pour the wild mushroom soaking liquid through a coffee filter (or a sieve with a paper towel in the bottom) into another bowl. Rinse off the mushrooms. Reserve the filtered soaking liquid and the rinsed mushrooms to use later in the soup recipe.
3. Melt vegan butter in a large heavy pot or dutch oven. Add onions and a dash of salt, and cook over HIGH stirring constantly for ~5 minutes, or until they are soft and somewhat translucent.
4. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Stirring around every now and then, sauté until the onions are golden (~15 minutes). Add garlic, thyme and bay leaves, and sauté 2 more minutes.
5. Add flour to onions. Stir until everything is coated. Sauté for 1 minute, and then, stir in wine. Scrape the flour off the bottom, and stir around for about a minute. You should have a paste form. Then, stir in the soy sauce, and stir around for another minute over medium-low heat.
6. Add the wild mushrooms and the filtered soaking liquid into the soup pot. Then, add the broth. Stir until well combined. Cover and simmer over low for 30 minutes. Taste, and adjust seasonings (more soy sauce? salt?). Serve this vegan wild mushroom onion soup with a hearty loaf of bread.
