Les Halles Onion Soup; veganized, de-suckified.

There are quite a few Bourdain soups that could be easily veganized just by switching from chicken/beef/veal stock to vegetable stock, but I wanted to start out with one that would be a little bit more involved, mainly to demonstrate that if a rank amateur like me can manage the veganization of a veal-bacon-cheese dish, anyone can do it.

So the first official recipe undertaken by Hezbollah Tofu is Les Halles' onion soup. The original is already online here if you want to take a look. This recipe calls for chicken stock, but I'm pretty sure Les Halles uses beef or veal. Whatever, we can do better.

I started out by using Earth Balance and vegetable stock where butter and meat stock appear in the original (and I halved the recipe for HT, because unless you have a family of 6 or are throwing a dinner party, you probably do not need 2 quarts of soup--but if you do just double it). I also used dry sherry instead of port wine, because I thought the drier, sharper, earthier flavor would be a better match for the flavors involved, especially since we are not using bacon.

Now, as to the aforementioned bacon, tempeh bacon crossed my mind but I sort of doubted its ability to hold together well and retain its flavor and texture through nearly an hour of simmering. If anyone wants to try it, let me know how it works. I decided to use dried black trumpet mushrooms instead, blanched in a vegetable stock/sherry mixture for a few minutes before they were added to the soup. It's worth noting that the mushroom addition here falls into the "improvement" category of Hezbollah Tofu. They're not even trying to be bacon, they're just replacing the oh-so-played-out greasy meat ingredient with something that adds a far more interesting texture, a fantastic infusion of delicate flavor, and an ability to incorporate well into the soup rather than sinking to the bottom like a fatty pork submarine.

The gruyere recipe I used is an adaptation of an adaptation from The Uncheese Cookbook. It really didn't leave much to be desired at all; it was smooth, creamy, had a strong "stinky" flavor, and floated in the soup in oozy, cheesy chunks, just as it should. I added crushed, toasted almonds for extra texture and broil-ability.

Without further adieu, here's the first in what will hopefully be a long and successful series of veganized Les Halles recipes. As with everything here, please feel free to test it, add your own improvements, photograph it (especially if your camera sucks less than mine), and send it in for posting.

Les Halles Onion Soup (only better)

For the mushrooms:
1 oz dried black trumpet mushrooms
Blanch 4 minutes in 1 1/2 cups of boiling vegetable stock plus 1 oz dry sherry; drain and retain liquid.

For the soup:
3 1/2 ounces Earth Balance (or other non-hydrogenated margarine)
4 large onions, thinly sliced
1 oz dry sherry
1 oz balsamic vinegar
1 quart (4 cups) vegetable stock
bouquet garni (this is a fantsypants French term for a bunch of fresh herbs tied together with leek leaves or twine; I used sage, thyme, bay leaves, and oregano.)

For the croutons and gruyere:
8 baguette slices, brushed with olive oil and toasted until hard and crisp
1 cup water
2 t of the retained mushroom liquid
2 T lemon juice
2 T tahini
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T quick oats
4 t cornstarch
2 t onion powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup crushed almonds, lightly toasted

Melt the EB over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring regularly, until they start to smell a little scorched and are beginning to brown uniformly.

Increase the heat to medium-high, stir in the sherry and vinegar and the drained mushrooms, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the stock and garni, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.

While that's simmering, get your cheesy croutons ready. Combine all of the gruyere ingredients except the toasted baguette slices and almonds in a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer this liquid to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick (it won't take long, despite the fact that it will be absolutely watery liquid when you pour it out of the food processor).

Preheat your oven's broiler. Ladle the soup into oven-proof containers (soup crocks would be preferable, though all I had was a small Pyrex dish and everything worked out fine). Spread a layer of gruyere on each crouton (don't be stingy) and float a couple of croutons on each serving of soup (you can also plop some extra spoonfuls of gruyere into the soup if you're feeling particularly brazen). Sprinkle the toasted crushed almonds over the top of everything, and stick the whole business under the broiler for a few minutes, checking it regularly, until the soup is bubbly and the almonds are roasty-toasty and even scorched in a few places.

Serve immediately, attempting to say "Anthony Bourdain is my little bitch" between bites.