Product: Pacific Natural Foods Organic French Onion Soup – $1.99+
As I have been a vegetarian for a couple of years now, I’ve learned that a lot of soups are actually made with a chicken or beef base, despite the safe sounding vegetable names…like tomato, vegetable, french onion, etc. And, even more tricky since having to go gluten-free is being confident enough with a soup or restaurant to be able to guarantee that there will be no contamination and that no ingredients contain gluten. Gluten is tricky and shows up in some of the oddest places.
Like in soup.
So, imagine my delight when I came across a version of French Onion Soup from Pacific Natural Foods that is not only labeled gluten-free (YAY!! I wish more places would label), but is also 100% vegetarian. I was so excited and ended up buying a couple of these without even tasting one first. Yeah…I get pretty worked up over food and do spontaneous stuff like that.
I actually have made this soup twice. The first time, without any additions. And it was delicious on its own. Honestly. The soup itself is a broth that is made from filtered water and an organic sauteed onion base, which really highlights the crisp, caramelized flavor of the onion in the soup. It was really good to dip my gluten-free/dairy-free grilled cheese into. Yummy. But, it was boring. Yes…despite all the flavor, it looked like a bowl of…sewer water, to be honest. So, when I made it on another night, I touched it up a little. I cut up some gluten-free bread crusts I had in the freezer and spritzed them with some olive oil, giving them a hint of garlic seasoning. That went into the oven to make croutons. While those were toasting, I caramelized up some shallots to add to the broth. The soup went onto the stove to heat, and in went the shallots. Once heated through, each bowl was garnished with some gluten-free croutons and then sprinkled with some Gruyere cheese, which I then attempted to melt down with my kitchen torch (it worked better in my head than in practice).
However, this really did step up the soup a level. Not only did it give it some body, but it boosted an already flavorful broth into something actually resembling a soup. I still ate it with my grilled cheese sammie, because the soup on its own was only 30 calories, which wouldn’t hold over this tummy for long. Even with the little additions. So, low calorie, flavorful, gluten-free, vegetarian, and delicious…that’s a recipe for success.
And luckily, this soup is readily available at local grocery stores. Finally…a French Onion Soup that even I can indulge in. Thank you, again, Pacific Natural Foods.
The Celiathlete 