So it’s been my plan for the last few months to make roasted vegetable stock this spring to fill up our pantries for Lent and meatless Friday meals. One of my favorite books for simple, Lenten meals, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, uses vegetable stock often for added flavor and now that I know how to can stock, I thought, why not?
Until I opened my pantry and saw row after row and jar after jar of turkey and poultry stock, produced over the last few months, just looking at me. Pregnancy fatigue was getting me down and it just seemed like too much to have to consider making and storing more stock, sanitizing jars, buying another box of lids, and hauling out the canner from the basement. Don’t get me wrong, for meat-based stocks, the canning process is fantastic, my new favorite thing, and I use it all the time. But for vegetables? Sigh, I was getting tired just thinking about it.
And then I ran across this post, and this one, and remembered those lovely little jars of bouillon I used to buy and keep stocked in my fridge before I realized they were all full of MSG. It was so simple to just heat up some water in our electric kettle, add a spoonful or two of bouillon and voila! Instant soup, or flavor to any dish, from jambalaya to minestrone to risotto.
And then I looked in my fridge and realized I almost had all of the ingredients anyway . . . one trip to the store to buy mushrooms, five minutes of chopping and two minutes of processing and I was done. With a full quart of bouillon in my fridge, just waiting for our next meatless meal.
A note: The quantity of salt in this recipe is essential to preserving the raw vegetables. Basically you’re making a form of a pickle to store in your fridge until you add it with hot water to make stock. Don’t even think of skimping it! Also, unlike my other stock recipes, this one is already, obviously, seasoned so be cautious about any excess salt you add to your finished dish – taste test first! If you must have a no or low-salt version, see the note at the end of the recipe for a freezer-version.
Vegetable Bouillon
makes one full quart
- 4 carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into one inch pieces
- 3 stalks of celery, trimmed, washed and cut into one inch pieces
- 1 very large shallot (3 average sized ones) or 1 medium-sized mild onion
- 4 green onions, washed and chopped (I would also consider substituting one leek, white part only, next time if I had one in my vegetable bin)
- 1 large handful of flat leaf parsley, stems and leaves, washed and lightly chopped
- About 1/2 cup or so of sun-dried tomato halves (the only ones I could find were stored in oil, but I’d also make it again with those that are simply dried)
- 1-1/2 cups of mushrooms, stems and caps, cleaned and chopped (I used Baby Bellas)
- 3 large cloves of garlic
- 8 ounces salt (measure by weight, if possible – I used kosher salt and it was just under 1 cup but different salts will measure out differently by volume)
- 1 Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
Layer all the ingredients in a large food processor and blend away, pulsing if necessary to get all the vegetables to the blades, until you have a uniform paste. I have the largest food processor available to the masses – a 14 cupper – so if you have a smaller one I’d recommend halving the recipe or processing in batches.
Store in a quart size jar in the fridge!
To use, measure out 1 measured teaspoon per 1 cup of hot water.
*If you want to make a salt-free or low-salt version of this, I’d recommend omitting or reducing the salt in the paste, and then freezing it in 2 teaspoon or so batches in an ice-cube tray. If you plan on keeping it in your fridge, however, you must include all the salt in the original recipe.
Any favorite vegetarian soups or dishes you make regularly? I’m always on the lookout for meatless recommendations!
Enjoy!
I made this a few weeks ago after seeing it at Culinate.com. It is SO good! I also think I could cut back on the salt as I keep it in the freezer. It is quite salty, as is, so it is likely your recipe will not need additional salt. I think it would be a great gift for someone…packaged in maybe a 4oz jelly jar?
Sarah! If I didn’t love you already, this would surely seal the deal! My Lenten meals are looking up already! <3 <3 <3
(yes, I really AM that excited about this recipe!)
How long can you store the vegetable stock in the refrigerator and freezer.
Hi Pat!
The bouillon will last several months (eight or so?) in the fridge and up to one or two years in the freezer. Thanks for visiting!
Best,
Sarah
YUM. looks so good. i just made soup yesterday – it was actually my first time making chicken soup, because i’m used to cooking for vegetarians. the trick to veg soups (other than the same trick for meat soups – slow cook ‘em for a long time) is definitely roasting some of the sweeter veggies. i also have been getting really into yuca (cassava / source of tapioca) as a potato substitute. it’s gluten-free and way creamy as opposed to the sort of mealiness of a potato, sort of like a red potato as compared with a baking potato. i love it so much. it makes a great soup base if allowed to cook until it falls apart. cauliflower is a great soup base, too. dals (pulses/lentils, or peas and beans) can be pureed with rice and then fermented! it’s hearty and easy to digest.
Thanks for the comment, Siegfried, and the tips for making vegetarian soups!
I am a potato-lover myself but you’re right, in a soup they tend to break down too far for my taste . . . and a day or two later (I tend to make huge pots of soups!) they’re either gluey or mealy. Yuck. I do tend to enjoy and make soups that use beans more often for “starchy creaminess,” like, say, in a minestrone, than potato-ey soups so I’d be interested in learning more about your cassava technique. Thank you for sharing – food for thought! 
And I agree, I think it is as often the techniques you use as well as good, true ingredients that make a good soup. Roasting vegetables, browning or caramelizing them first, throwing in a bit of vegetable stock, simple techniques really, ALWAYS makes a more well-rounded, flavorful soup than something where you just throw everything in raw with water.
Thanks for commenting, it was great to have you part of the conversation!
Best,
Sarah
This is a wonderful idea thank you so much!
I am so excited about this – like seriously! I don’t mind making meat broth but never quite like the taste of my vegetable broth – I have everything but the mushrooms – do you think I could use mushrooms I dehydrated last fall?????
definitely! you could rehydrate them first by boiling them in plain water and tossing them in when the soup’s done, or just throw the dried mushrooms right into the soup. just make sure to add a little extra water!
This is a great idea for standby soups! Thanks for sharing
This is a wonderful idea! Sometimes, I miss the days of easy soup prep with my trusty jar of Better than Boullion. I am going to make some of this over the weekend. Thank you!!
[...] of course, one of my favorite “stock’s” of all is not a stock at all, but my raw, salt-cured vegetable bouillon, which I keep in my fridge at all [...]
[...] Dishes I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen. Also, I need to make another batch of my vegetable bouillon next week. My last batch has lasted a full year in the fridge and I’m just about scraping [...]
Oh my gosh, this is amazing! I am definitely going to try this! I’m not pregnant, and I get the same way … lazy sometimes! I can see how easy this would be, and if it lasts that long in the fridge? Wow! Thanks for the inspiration!
Absolutely! I hope you try it, it is a kitchen staple in my house!
Best,
Sarah
Can you tell more about ways you use the Veg. Bouillion?? On your marinara sauce you gave some great tips, for instance! THANKS
Subscribing from Lawrence, KS
Hi Charlotte!
Good question! I use the bouillon in everything. Any time a recipe calls for chicken or vegetable stock, you could substitute hot water and a spoonful or two of the bouillon. I use it in homemade soups like minestrone, split pea, mushroom & barley or baked potato, I stir in a spoonful in the water when I make rice or quinoa or rissoto or rice pilaf for added flavor and nutrition, I’ve added it in to chicken and dumplings, cottage pie and other casseroles for flavor. I’ve used it with water to braise meats in the crockpot or dutch oven, the uses are infinite! I’ve even just heated up a bit of water in a bowl, added a small spoonful of bouillon, sliced up some jalapeno and garlic and sipped on it when I’m sick (or add rice noodles, veggies and leftover meat for a full soup). Hope this helps you!
Best,
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for all your great tips on preparing wholesome food! Two great Websites that inspire my meatless cooking are:
http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/
and
http://mynewroots.org/site/
They have wonderful and imaginative vegetarian recipies that have my meatloving family convinced to have meatless days every so often.
Cheers,
Melanie
What a glorious recipe full of incredible possibilities! I am a possibilities girl and this is definately going to be something that graces our fridge from now on. I currently use a really good quality seasalt and ground veggie mix but this offers so much more! I can’t begin to thank you enough for this recipe. As a vegan it is often hard to source good quality nutritious base ingredients (without hidden meaty bits) here in Tasmania and I tend to make everything that I can myself. This will allow me to be able to be master of my own stock…a wonderful thing
Thank you, again, for sharing everything that you share here on this marvellous blog 
Do you need to set out for a few days to begin the fermentation, or refrigerate immediately??? Thanks for the great idea – we add all this type chopped veggies to salisbury steak, meatloaf, spaghetti…as well as soups & it will be so handy to have ready to go! Thanks, Shar