Buy a jar of vegetable stock and you know what you’re getting – essentially, expensive flavoured salt. The flavour is consistent, but the health downsides are too. Make your own liquid stock and your health benefits. The flavour varies, season to season, but after a while, you’ll get to know what ingredients you prefer, and how to balance the flavours to suit your taste. When making powdered stock, experiment as well. Start with mild flavours, and graduate towards stronger, more complex tastes.
Below is a list of suggested vegetables that can be used to make a quality stock
TO ENRICH THE FLAVOUR:
LIQUID TIPS
- Vege scraps can be stored and added to the freezer so you can accumulate enough to make a bottle of liquid stock.
- Freeze excess stock in small containers or ice cube trays. Cubes can be stored in plastic bags in the freezer.
- If you’re juicing veges or vege scraps, the pulp can go in the stock pot too, as you’ll be straining it out at the end. Do not pre-juice broad bean pods – they froth up too much.
POWDER TIPS
- When pulverising dried foods to make powder, leave the lid of the grinder on for about 15 seconds before you take it off. This lets the finer dust settle.
- Check out the variety of dried mushrooms available in Asian stores so you can add more or less of those you prefer. Black Fungus, for instance, has a very mild flavour. Plus it brings a depth of colour and a slight gel-like quality to the stock.
- Experiment with varieties of dried seaweed. If you buy kelp powder, use it sparingly.
- Pre-make your own kale flakes any time; de-stem the leaves and spread them across oven trays or racks. Dry on low heat, then crush or blend. Have a jar handy in the pantry to add to stock and also to use in other dishes as a scatter etc.
Vege Stock – Liquid and Instant
Vegetable stock from a jar is convenient but often loaded with salt and lacking in health benefits. Making your own liquid stock offers more control over flavour and nutrition, allowing you to adjust ingredients seasonally and to your taste. For powdered stock, experiment with mild flavours first, gradually exploring more complex combinations to suit your preferences.
Instructions
LIQUID VEGE STOCK
- Save any water used to steam or boil vegetables (yesterday’s – from the fridge – is OK too). Put it in a large saucepan and add any clean vege scraps you’ve saved, chilled, or frozen from previous days, and/or scraps from the meal you’re currently preparing.
- Add your choice of the following: dried mushrooms, dried onions, kale powder, dried herbs, dried tomatoes, (small amounts if you’ve not made stock before). The liquid needs to cover the veges. If it doesn’t top it up with water.
- Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. The liquid will reduce while it’s simmering but top it up only if it’s getting low.
- Taste it, then add spices, fresh herbs, or seaweed to suit your taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes or so, then take it off the heat. Let it cool for about 5 minutes.
- Separate the liquid stock from the veges by straining it through a sieve into a jug. If you want to dissolve miso, soy sauce or yeast into it, do so now. Then it’s ready to use or store in glass bottles in the fridge. Put the waste into the compost. Over the next few days, start collecting more vege scraps for your next batch.
INSTANT VEGE STOCK
- Pulverise any of the following in a nut grinder or coffee grinder until each is in a fine grit or powder form: Dried assorted mushrooms, dried onions, dried kale flakes, dried thyme & bay leaves, dried seaweed.
- Mix together and stir in some nutritional yeast, maybe some turmeric and spices of your choice.
- Test the flavour as you go by dissolving a little in boiling water and tasting the result. I found myself refining the taste over several batches
- Test the flavour as you go by dissolving a little in boiling water and tasting the result. I found myself refining the taste over several batches.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
