Flavourful old favourites

Vegan foods have come a long way. I've been told that 10 years ago it was even hard to find vegan hot dogs. Lately I've seen recipes veganizing everything from escargots to the infamous Double Down. (I have no doubt that the cruelty-free version is nonetheless just as disgusting as the original.)

The trick with veganizing main course dishes is we try to remain faithful to the original without the meat that is often the dish's primary ingredient. Pardon me for the next couple sentences, but I'm going to have a self-righteous vegan foodie moment: cooking with meat is easy with minimal effort, because it has lots of flavour. And cooking--with meat or animal products or not--is about balancing a few crucial elements: flavour, presentation, texture, and culture/memory. So when we veganize things, we have to up the ante a bit to compensate for the fact that we're taking out something that contributes to all of these things. In veganizing French Onion Soup, you take out the beef in the stock and the cheese on top. So how to compensate for this? Well, stretchy, melty, yummy Daiya takes over for cheese quite nicely. But the broth requires a little bit more dedication: I learned this a few years ago when I took beefless French Onion soup to work and a co-worker bluntly declared it lacking. Truthfully, it was lacking, so when I made it again today I carefully took steps to bring back the flavour. If you make stock from scratch, ladle out a liter or so for this recipe and then proceed with the additions to the stock. The result is a rich, brown stock with lots of flavour, and a veganized dish that satisfies.

Veganized French Onion Soup

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon oil
2 cans vegetable stock, plus water according to directions; or 1 container of ready-to-use broth
1 to 2 cubes mushroom bouillon, plus water according to bouillon directions
3/4 of a teaspoon 'browning liquid'
2 to 3 dashes of liquid smoke
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, or 1/3 cup white or red wine
Approximately 1 1/2 cups mozzarella-style Daiya

Heat sauté pan with the oil. Add the onion to the heated pan and sauté over medium-high heat for a few minutes, then then reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have become a rich dark brown, anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.
While the onions are sautéing, prepare the broth. In a large stock pot, add the stock, mushroom bouillon, 'browning liquid', liquid smoke and the garlic.

When the onions are browned, de-glaze the pan with the balsamic vinegar and a ladle-full of the broth (or with wine), then add the onions and liquid to the stock pot.

To bake, use oven-proof bowls and ladle in enough broth and onions to fill each two-thirds full. Add a slice of crusty bread to each, or toast whatever bread you have on hand, and gently place on top of the broth in each bowl. (Denser bread, or whole grain bread, better resists getting soggy during baking than white bread. But toasting helps too.) Top each bowl with 1/3 cup of mozzarella-style Daiya and put in the oven under the broiler until melted, watching carefully so as not to burn it.

Makes 4 to 5 servings, depending on how big your bowls are, and how big your appetite is. :)