Easy Vegetable Broth Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make vegetable broth taste good? ›

Add bright, fresh flavor to vegetable broth

To brighten any soup, stock, or broth, a splash of lemon juice or vinegar is always a good idea. A splash of white wine is never a bad thing either, but stay away from anything too oak-y, and simmer the broth for a few minutes to give the wine a chance to get comfortable.

Most store-bought vegetable broth contains some combination of onion, celery, carrots, and salt – it's also common for tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and/or other seasonings to be present. That's all fine and dandy, but store-bought broths also have a lot of other preservatives, such as: Vegetable Oils.

Avoid bitter greens and members of the brassica family (kale, cabbage, Bok Choy). Other greens can be used in small quantities. Good in small quantities (no more than 1/5 of the stock ingredients). Foods in the Brassica family, such as kohlrabi, are too strong for stock/broth and can impart a bitter taste.

Some vegetables just don't taste great in a stock! Cruciferous vegetables will get funky tasting, and seemingly mild vegetables like zucchini, green beans, and bell peppers can get bitter if simmered for too long.

If it tastes bitter to you, there are a couple of ways to fix that. Consider adding one to four tablespoons of unsalted butter. Add one at a time, melt it in, cook for two minutes and taste.

Tomato paste is sweet and acidic, and will also help reduce bitterness in vegetable broth. Enhance umami flavors with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast or dollop of creamy miso paste. I recommend mixing miso paste with a small amount of hot water to fully dissolve it before adding it to the broth.

Soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, or chili paste can quickly and efficiently flavor store-bought broth — a little bit goes along way with these ingredients. We often add a few drops of fish sauce to chicken broth before making wonton soup.

Water. This simple swap should suffice in most recipes that call for broth. To give H2O more depth, you may want to compensate by adding more spices like salt, pepper and bay leaves to your recipe and a tablespoon or two of olive oil to mimic the richness of broth.

Chicken Broth Ingredients

Chicken pieces: You can cut up a whole chicken to make broth or use any combination of bony chicken pieces, like legs, wings, necks and/or backbones. Celery, carrots and onions: This veggie trio is known as mirepoix. It adds depth and makes up the aromatic base of broth.

Broth, also known as bouillon (French pronunciation: [bu. jɔ̃]), is a savory liquid made of water in which meat, fish, or vegetables have been simmered for a short period of time. It can be eaten alone, but it is most commonly used to prepare other dishes, such as soups, gravies, and sauces.

Is homemade vegetable broth better? ›

Homemade Vegetable Broth Nutrition

These benefits are mainly derived from a freshly prepared broth vs. store-bought broths: Homemade vegetable broth is a fantastic source of fiber and a great way to help manage our digestive system.

Making vegetable stock costs virtually nothing.

Be mindful of the costs associated with adjunct flavors like salt, pepper, bay leaves, and other spices. They're all great additions, but not necessary if you don't already have them on hand.

Vegetable stock is made with untrimmed, sometimes whole vegetables, while broth is made from trimmed, roughly chopped vegetables. Vegetable stock generally takes longer to cook (at least 2 hours) than broth, which usually cooks for less than 30 minutes.

I have heard broccoli trimmings can be added to stock, but I avoid anything that leaves the water it was cooked or steamed in green (like peas, asparagus, or most non-herb greens). Stick with hard or stiff items, such as carrots, onions, celery, garlic, and dried mushrooms.

Consider adding other vegetables and herbs to the stock, like mushrooms, eggplant, asparagus trimmings, corn cobs, fennel stalks and trimmings, bell peppers, pea pods, chard stems and leaves, celery root trimmings, potato parings, marjoram stems and leaves, and basil stems and leaves.

any veggie can be used in soup, but unless you're making a very delicate, exceptional soup, I'd steer clear of lettuce. some veggies have a strong flavor, so you may enjoy using them, but in moderation. For me, parsnips and rutabaga fit this category.