December 20, 2019

Vegan Fondue with Caramelized Onions and Ale

Raise your tiny forks, it’s time for vegan fondue! From a romantic evening, to a dinner party, to a festive appetizer course, this caramelized onion and ale fondue will make any meal feel like an event. After all, who doesn’t like an interactive dining experience! This vegan fondue recipe is made with cashews, and flavored with your favorite ale (or your least favorite, if you’ve drank all your favorite) and slowly caramelized onions.

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Cheese Fondue- A New Year’s Tradition!

For many years my family celebrated New Years with cheese (and sometimes also chocolate) fondue. I believe it started when my Aunt and Uncle sent us a fondue pot for Christmas, and passed on their own New Years fondue tradition. My family and friends would sit around a fondue pot, dipping bread, potato chips, and sometimes even vegetables, usually wearing nose masks (a prime example of Zemba family weirdness). As I got older, I’d go out with friends, but I always started the evening with fondue. That tradition petered out around the time I went vegan- not only is traditional fondue not vegan-friendly, but it just got hard to get us all in one place. But at least now not being vegan won’t be a deciding factor, ’cause we’ve got a great vegan fondue ready to go!

Looking for New Year’s Party Recipes? Try one of these!

I’ve got the Fondue, What Do I Dip?

Making a great vegan fondue recipe is only half the story- once you have that down, you still need to figure out what you want to dip into it. Although I only have a cheese fondue recipe on my blog at this point, I included dipping ideas for a vegan chocolate fondue too, in case you were really making an event out of this fondue thing. I’m sure there are many, many more items that taste great in fondue, but here are a few to get your creative juices flowing!

Vegan Cheese Fondue Dippers

Yummy Carb Things: Bread, pretzels, crackers, chips, and pasta (fat ones, not long ones)
Raw vegetables– Broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and bell peppers
Cooked vegetables– Roast or steam potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, pearl onions, eggplant, and brussels sprouts.
Fruit– Some really go well with cheese- apples, pears, grapes, and figs.
Other Bits– Artichoke hearts, pickles, olives, vegan sausages are all fun.

Vegan Chocolate Fondue Dippers

Fruits– This is really the big one for chocolate fondue- cherries, strawberries, apples, pears, raspberries, pineapple, kiwi- pretty much any fruit would be great.
Baked Goods– Brownies, cookies, cake bits- my mother would never have let us do any of these, but she’s not there to stop you!
Other Bits– Potato chips, pretzels, marshmallows, bread, and cookie dough are all wonderful choices.
Add a topping bowl– After dipping in chocolate, try adding bowls of crushed nuts, coconut, sprinkles, and more to roll your chocolate coated treats in.

Making Vegan Fondue with Caramelized Onions and Ale

Because we are dedicated to really tasty fondue, we spent some time creating a delicious one. That means sitting back and caramelizing the onions, to get the most oniony sweetness out of them. Next we add a dark vegan ale (you can check that the beer you buy is vegan on Barnivore), and cook that down a little, creating the backbone of the fondues flavor. From there it’s just all in the blender- get it as smooth as possible, adding more or less water depending on the texture you’re going for. Once it’s smooth, heat your vegan fondue up again, which will thicken the tapioca to have a stretchy, melty, cheese-like quality. Get it to your desired thickness (you can always add more water if it gets to thick), and transfer to your fondue pot. Enjoy!

Vegan Fondue with Caramelized Onions and Ale

Ingredients

2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
3 small-medium sized onions
1 ½ cup raw cashew pieces
1 cup beer (darker ales work well)
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. tapioca starch
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. whole grain miso
1 tsp. white miso paste
¾ cup-1 cup water
¼ cup nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Place the cashews in a pot covered in water, bring to a boil, and allow to boil for 10 minutes. Remove the cashews from the heat, drain, and place in the blender.
Slice all the onions into half-moons. Add one tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet, and add the onions on a medium-high heat and start to caramelize them. Stir them every couple of minutes, turning down the heat as they release water, and adding about ½ tsp. of salt. After around 30-45 minutes, when the onions are all golden and have lost most of their volume, add the beer to the skillet, return the heat to medium-high, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the onions, beer, and remaining ingredients into the blender with the cashews. Blend until very smooth. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan, and heat for a few minutes, stirring and scraping the sides and bottom of the pot until it has reached the desired thickness. Transfer to a fondue pot, and enjoy!

https://veryveganval.com/2019/12/20/vegan-fondue-with-caramelized-onions-and-ale/