Vegetable stock: My Secret Lover

April 23, 2024 4:07 PM

So I made this vegetable broth that pops up every few years when someone discovers it. After learning what fennel bulbs looked like, it was pretty straightforward. Although it didn't change my life, I'm wondering what your favorite homemade, fresh vegetable broth recipes you enjoy?

I'm not a fancy cook and will probably just use my instant pot to make these. I am exploring being vegetarian, as it is just easier on my stomach and body despite my nerdish fascination with ketosis and protein.

posted by craniac to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Sweat in a little oil over low heat:

An onion (sliced or 1cm dice), a bit of salt sprinkled on it

when it is softened, add: chopped celery, sliced carrot, garlic. A little more salt.

CAREFUL with the garlic. Cut into large pieces and keep heat super low so it softens but doesn't brown.

Add water and some white wine. Bay leaf, thyme, a little rosemary, whatever other herbs you have that go with this. Add pepper.

You can add vegetable scraps for flavour at this point. Make sure they are well washed. The tough part of leek greens, the thick stems from kale and cavolo nero are all good. (Add the leaves later, when making actual soup.) Mushroom stems are great if they're clean.

Simmer (blip not bloop) for as long as you wish. 40 minutes? An hour? Then strain, or just take the tough stuff out, and you're done.

Potential flavour additions when it's soup time:
Tomato paste
The boiling water you used for dried mushrooms
Miso paste (small amounts)
Balsamic vinegar (ditto)
At the end, off the heat: Lemon juice and/or sour cream
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:48 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

I like a mushroom based broth - rehydrate dried chinese mushrooms and simmer them. Use an onion with the skin on, a carrot or two, and maybe some celery. You may have to strain it.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:27 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Maangchi’s vegetable stock is perfect for a wide range of korean dishes and tasty to sip on its own. I am not one to follow recipes but I follow this one as close as I can if I want predictably deep and balanced flavor.

For slapdash Japanese inspired dishes at home that I want to be vegetarian for whatever reason, I like to use dried shiitake and kombu in place of a traditional dashi. Soak the mushrooms in hot water first, and let them soften and loosen any grit before adding them to your stock pot with cold water and a chunk of kombu. Bring it slowly up to a simmer and fish out the kombu after a couple minutes so it doesn’t make things bitter. Strain the mushroom soaking liquid from before and add it to the pot if you like, simmer about ten more minutes until the mushrooms are completely rehydrated. Give them a squeeze and use them in another dish. The mushroom and kombu stock is very good with a bit of fresh citrus and noodles, or reduce it and season with shoyu and pour over soft tofu with scallions and grated ginger, stick that in the fridge for a few hours or overnight and enjoy cold.

I love carrots; you can make a really deep and wonderful carrot stock. Get carrots with green tops and clean the tops thoroughly. Chunk up and roast the carrots whole until lightly browned. Add the roasted carrots to your stock pot alongside all the green tops, a few whole peppercorns, some smashed garlic cloves, and some dill. Simmer away until the carrots are mush, salt to taste. You can add onion and celery while roasting the carrots to make it more rounded in flavor but I like the pure carrot-iness. Makes a good base for white beans in broth, lots of sweetness.
posted by Mizu at 8:01 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

Kimchi jjigae is probably the only soup I've ever made where the broth is so outrageously good that I don't even care about the rest of the stuff in the soup, and often run out of broth before I've eaten all the solids. Although the recipes usually call for pork (or tuna), I've made it with just tofu many times—likewise, you can make it authentic with anchovy stock but I usually just substitute better than bouillon paste.
posted by telegraph at 2:59 PM on April 24 [2 favorites]