Easy Vegetable Broth Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What not to put in vegetable broth? ›

Ingredients for Vegetable Broth

Celery, carrots, leek, and onion form the aromatic base of this vegetable stock, and dried mushrooms are the powerhouse ingredient, providing savoriness, richness, and color.

Leeks, turnips or mushroom scraps are all excellent when added to the broth. For even more richness, we add dried mushrooms — these can be purchased online and are often found in the spice aisle of larger grocery stores. They pack a punch and add a “meatiness” to the broth.

Making vegetable stock costs virtually nothing.

No need to let the vegetable scraps thaw, just toss them in a stockpot, add water, and let them home-cooked aromas fill your home.

Foods in the Brassica family, such as broccoli, are too strong for stock/broth and can impart a bitter taste. Foods in the Brassica family, such as cabbage, 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.

Vegetable broth contains iron that helps to stimulate the formation of red blood cells, helping to avoid anemia, increase energy levels, and avoid tiredness. Homemade broth helps to manage body metabolism, optimizing nutrient absorption, and resulting in a lighter feeling.

Once the broth is cool, you can store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. To store for a longer period of time, you'll need to freeze the broth.

But if you keep an eye on sodium levels, both broth and stock can be healthy. Taub-Dix notes that stock is often considered healthier than broth since it tends to be slightly higher in protein and other nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, than broth.

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.

How do you take the bitterness out of vegetable broth? ›

How do you fix bitter vegetable broth? Add sweet vegetables like carrots and beets. They will sweeten the broth and deepen its color. You might also add a bit of miso (or salt) and/or a squeeze of lemon juice.

All you need are some aromatic vegetables and water. At the very least, you'll want to use carrots, onions, and garlic. Celery helps, as do fresh herbs, like parsley and thyme, and dried ones, like a bay leaf. Anything else that doesn't have too particular of a flavor can go in, too.

Stock! Whether homemade or store-bought it has more protein and usually less sodium per serving as compared to broth. Plus, the flavor is just better which means you'll start with something tastier and will hopefully use less salt to taste at the end.

Cooked vegetable broth typically lasts around 4-5 days in the refrigerator when stored properly in an airtight container. As for its uses, vegetable broth can be incredibly versatile! You can use it as a base for various soups like hot vegetable soup, minestrone, or noodle soups.

As a result, stock is usually a healthier product, delivering a richer mouth feel and deeper flavor than broth. Stock is a versatile culinary tool that can deliver taste to any number of dishes. Darker in color and more concentrated in flavor than broth, it's ideal for use in soups, rice, sauces and more.

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.

Add bright, fresh flavor to vegetable broth

Just warm up the broth, toss in some parsley, cilantro, tarragon, sage, thyme, or a combination, and let the broth steep like tea for several minutes before fishing the herbs out. Don't boil fresh herbs in broth, though, or they could make the stock bitter.

Note: You can add many other vegetable scraps (think sweet!) - i.e. corn cobs, winter squash, zucchini, and other squash, beet greens, fennel, chard, lettuce, parsnips, green beans, pea pods, bell peppers, eggplant, mushrooms, asparagus, and herbs like dill, thyme, parsley, cilantro, and basil.

Optional: some people like red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, so add those vegetable scraps if you like the flavor. (I don't love bell pepper in veggie stock). Avoid green bell pepper as it can turn bitter, and avoid the white inside, or pith, of bell peppers as it can turn bitter as well.