Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Imagine this more beautiful with croutons and cheese on top.

I love French onion soup and had several onions and some port to use up, so it made sense to make some at home.  It is much simpler than I thought it would be with ingredients that probably most of us have around the house (other than the port.  So make it after a get together when you haven't finished your bottle of port-->exactly what I did).  Using vegetable stock rather than the tradition beef makes this edible for my vegetarian friends.  This may be a dumbed down version, but I made it up and it's still very delicious

You'll need (for 4ish servings)

• 4-6 vidalia onions (depending upon size)
• half a stick of butter
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped or minced (your preference, I just hate cleaning my garlic mincer)
• 1 heaping tablespoon flour
• 2 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable bouillon (or sub 2 cups of vegetable broth for water + bouillon)
• 1/2 -1 cup of port (something on the sweet side, but not super syrupy sweet)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1ish tablespoons of Italian Seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• dash salt

The steps

• Slice onions.  Do not dice them, just slice them in about 1 inch pieces.  
• Melt butter in a pot.  Be sure the pot you're using has a thick bottom to avoid sticking.
• Add sliced onions to butter and cook over medium heat until golden (about 20-30 minutes), stirring occasionally.  Add garlic about halfway through the cooking process.
• Once onions are just starting to brown (but don't brown them!), add flour and stir rapidly until onions are lightly coated.
• Add vegetable bouillon and water (or just broth).
• Bring to a boil and add port.  Cook for about 10 minutes, or until you can taste that the alcohol has burned off and the soup has thickened.
• While cooking, add sugar, seasoning, bay leaf, and salt.  Taste a few times, especially at the very end to see if you need to adjust the spices/sweetness.  End result should be earthy but a little sweet.  The color should be a pale purple/maroon.

To serve:

• Heat up the broiler in your oven.
• Either in individual dishes or in one large serving dish, place croutons (unseasoned, so it may be easier to just make your own by throwing some cubes of stale bread in the oven until crisp) and cheese (Swiss, Gruyère, or provolone) on top.
• Place under the broiler for about 5-10 minutes until the cheese has melted and just started to brown.

Reward yourself with a glass of port and enjoy this very fancy (but easy) soup.