Stock Market 101: Veggie Stock, 5 Ways
Spilling the (vegetable) tea
Vegetable stock is essentially just vegetable tea, have you ever thought about that? Most soup recipes will call for some form of stock or broth to provide depth of flavour - and sometimes animal-based stock just doesn’t fit the bill (or the dietary requirements). Which is why we’re diving into the world vegetable stocks today.
A medley of vegetables, herbs, and spices, vegetable stocks can elevate a boring soup into a wonderful one. Beyond its delectable taste, vegetable stock offers a lighter and more sustainable alternative for those seeking to reduce their meat consumption or embrace a plant-forward diet.
Vegetable stocks can be less flavourful than their animal-based counterparts, mainly because they’re lacking the substance imparted by cooking bones for hours upon hours. The lucky thing is that with a few umami-boosting tricks up your sleeve, you can achieve rich and delicious stocks without a single bone. I use the term umami a lot below. For the uninitiated, umami means “delicious savory taste” in Japanese, and it occurs naturally in lots of foods, including mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, seaweed, but also cheese, chicken, beef and sardines. The great news is that we can harness the former (plant-based) varieties of umami to add savoury depth to stock.
ON TODAY’S AGENDA
🧅 a rich veggie stock
🫚 a ginger-lemongrass stock
🍄 a basic mushroom stock
🪸 a miso-mushroom-kombu stock
🪙 a lentil stock
A Rich Veggie Stock
This is a good all-rounder stock: endlessly versatile, inexpensive, and low effort. Use it as a base for brothy and puréed soups alike. The secret here is browning/caramelising the vegetables before adding the water.
🧄🧅🥬NOTES ON VEGETABLE STOCK🥬🧅🧄
For a basic vegetable stock, choose neutral vegetables that won’t overpower the recipe you plan to use the stock in . “Neutral” is obviously as omewhat subjective term, as we all have different tastes, though there are a few hard and fast rules (more on that later). For instance, I personally find that carrots impart too much sweetness, so I rarely include them, but many pro chefs find them to be absolutely crucial.
Vegetables that will, in my experience, objectively f*** up your stock:
Things like broccoli or brussels sprouts will make it bitter and, quite frankly, gross (not to mention, the smell will seep into every fibre of your house, lingering for days).
Potatoes will fall apart and make the whole affair a cloudy mush.
Beets will affect not just the flavour but also the colour, not ideal unless you’re throwing a barbie-themed soup party.
Squash or pumpkin will dissolve apart and become bitter or sickly sweet.
For an exhaustive list, see here
How to make a stock richer:
Longer browning at the beginning = more caramelisation = more flavour.
Cutting the veggies into smaller pieces = more surface to be caramelised = more flava flav! Browning the aromatics in hot olive oil for a solid 10 minutes at the beginning has a biiiiiig impact.
Simmer it for longer for a richer, more concentrated flavour.
Can’t sugarcoat this: salt. If you have to watch your sodium intake, you will have to reduce it. Salt is a bonafide umami enhancer, and I use it quite liberally throughout the cooking stages and personally don’t have issues but I’m not a doctor so I won’t tell you what to do!
A parmesan rind! This will of course make it no longer vegan, but it adds next level … you guessed it … umami.
Ingredients
3 tb olive oil
1 large onion, halved but not peeled
2 leeks, halved lengthwise
1 head of garlic, halved but not peeled
1 cup button mushrooms, roughly torn
Optional: 1/4 cup white wine
2 bay leaves
1 bunch fresh parsley
1-2 tb salt
1.5 litres water
Ingredients
Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot, then add in the onion, leeks, and head of garlic cut side down. Sear on high for at least 5 minutes, then add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes, until you achieve nice browning (you’ll see this at the bottom of the pan too - some bits will look burnt! This is what we want, it adds flavour). At this point, you can deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine, cooking until it fully absorbs before addign the water etc in the next step (totally optional).
Add in the bay leaves, parsley, salt, and water. Bring the stock to a boil, then reduce it down to a simmer. Simmer for at least 2 hours for a full-bodied stock, though you can cook it for less if you don’t mind it lighter. Strain, discard the veggies, and use the stock however you please (and pre-freeze some for good measure - soupercubes to the rescue!!!)