Vegan Onion and Apple Soup With Apple, Sesame, and Ginger Relish

I was out all day at a gardening class, and I didn’t have time to cook. The following recipe is one I have made before, and really like.


This recipe is from The Millennium Cook Book, Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine, by Eric Tucker and John Westerdahl, and Sasha weiss, published by ten Speed press, Berkley, California, p. 62. This book features recipes from the Millennium Restaurant which was voted the best in its categories by Veg News Magazine in the 2005 Veggie Awards. I think the following soup recipe is really wonderful, although it is a bit more involved than most of the recipes I put in my blog.

Onion and Apple Soup
Makes 6 Servings

4 large yellow onions cut into thin slices (6 cups)

2 cups dry red wine or non-alcoholic red wine

3 apples (or pears), peeled and cut into thin slices (4 cups)

1/4 cup minced fresh ginger

2 teaspoons Sucanat or unrefined sugar

2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

8 cups vegetable stock

1/3 cup dark miso

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

½ cup wild rice, cooked (I cup when cooked)*

sea salt to taste

Apple, Sesame, and Ginger Relish (recipe follows)


In a soup pot, combine the onions and red wine. Cook, covered, over medium heat until the onions soften, about 15 minutes. Add the apples, ginger, Sucanat, tarragon, thyme, and pepper.

Cook another 5 minutes, then add the vegetable stock. Reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Whisk in the miso and add the balsamic vinegar and wild rice. Add salt. Serve each bowl of soup topped with 1 tablespoon of the apple relish.

*To cook wild rice (from www.mnwildrice.com): Wash 1 cup uncooked wild rice thoroughly. Add to 3 cups boiling water, salted to taste, in a heavy saucepan. Return water to boil and stir. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 50-60 minutes or just until kernels puff open. Uncover and fluff with table fork. Simmer five additional minutes. Drain any excess liquid. For chewier texture cook less time. Yield: 3-4 cups of cooked wild rice. (For additional flavor, try cooking in vegetable broth)

Apple, Sesame, and Ginger Relish
Makes 1 cup

1 apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced

2 scallions, finely diced

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted**

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl.

** To toast sesame seeds: Toss the seeds in a dry saute pan over medium heat, shaking the pan constantly, until the spices darken slightly and give off fragrant wisps of smoke. This takes about 3 to 6 minutes.