Naturally this is a perfect substitute for vegetarians and vegans whenever a meat stock is called for. But really, it’s delicious in its own right and suited to all sorts of applications by anybody!
Homemade Vegetable Stock
As with all stocks, homemade Vegetable Stock is far superior to store bought, with the added benefit that it’s much easier to make than seafood and meat stocks which often call for manhandling of considerable amounts of bones (I’m thinking of you beef stock!). You’ll love that this recipe is really simple, just calling for vegetables, herbs and aromatics to be simmered gently for 2 hours until the water is infused with beautiful flavours.
What Vegetable Stock is made of
This is a traditional Western-style vegetable stock, free from any bells and whistles like ginger or obscure vegetables. It’s made with carrot, celery and onion as our base vegetables, plus parsley, bay leave, thyme, garlic, black peppercorns and coriander seeds as our added flavourings. Nothing more.
How to make Vegetable Stock
This is a great classic, simple recipe for vegetable stock where everything is just placed in a saucepan and simmered very gently so the water is infused with flavour from the vegetables and aromatics. There’s no need to sauté the vegetables first – this actually makes the stock cloudy which to me is not desirable as it limits the usefulness of the stock (for example to make attractively clear soups).
Storing Vegetable Stock
Being free of meat, homemade Vegetable Stock will last at least 5 days in the fridge, or 3 months in the freezer. When freezing, I typically freeze in 1 cup measures, just to make it easier to portion out (rather than defrosting an entire 1 litre batch just to use 1 cup). Below it’s simply shown in one large jar because I made it to cook Mushroom Soup, which uses most of the batch.
How to use Homemade Vegetable Stock
The strength of this stock is such that it can be used 1:1 in any recipe calling for Vegetable Stock. It can also be used as an alternative for any recipe calling for chicken stock if you prefer a light, cleaner, vegetal flavour. Here are some recipes that will really be elevated to restaurant quality if you make them with homemade Vegetable Stock instead of store bought stock: And so another stock is added to my homemade stock collection – few more to come! 🙂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Life of Dozer
Never listens when I tell him there is NO ROOM on the sun lounge for him!! (And you know secretly I love it 😂)
