This Basic Homemade Vegetable Stock is a great foundation for soups, stews, risottos, pilafs, and curries. It is very easy to make your own with this recipe, affordable and doesn't require much time or effort.
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This healthy and low sodium stock made with a few basic vegetables tastes much better than store-bought ones. Once you see how rewarding is to use your own homemade stock in your cooking, you will never use shop-bought ones again.
Ingredients and Substitutes for Vegetable Stock
For making good vegetable stock, all you need is a few vegetables and aromatic herbs you have in your fridge. The main ingredients are onions, carrots, celery, peppercorns, bay leaves, and thyme.
You can then add extras like mushroom scraps, leek, fennel, parsley stalks, asparagus ends, garlic, parsnip, or even tomato peels. You could even use some tomato paste or dried mushroom for giving an umami taste to your stock.
What Not to Put in Vegetable Stock?
Although you can use most of the vegetables for stock, avoid the ones from the brassica family like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, or kale and also soft vegetables like potatoes and butternut squash.
Cooking Instructions
You can make your vegetable stock white or brown.
White Vegetable Stock doesn't need browning the vegetables. It's much easier and quicker to make and they are lighter in colour and milder in taste. They are great for cooking dishes like Gourmet Mushroom Risotto or Turkish Rice Pilaf.
Brown Vegetable Stock is made by browning the vegetables in oil before cooking in water. They are richer and deeper in colour and add more full-bodied flavour to dishes like Kuru Fasulye or Izmir Kofte (Smyrna Meatballs).
- Start with preparing your vegetables. Peel and dice the onion and carrot into small cubes. Wash the leeks and celery thoroughly and thinly sliced. Slice the mushrooms if using whole and lightly crush the garlic.
How to Make Brown Vegetable Stock?
If making brown vegetable stock, add olive oil to a large stockpot and put it over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until lightly browned then add mushrooms. Saute mushrooms for a few minutes along with the onions and add the carrot, celery and leek.
Cook all together for another 5-6 minutes until they start to soften. Add garlic, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns and parsley stalks (optional) and fill the pot with cold water until all the vegetables are fully submerged and covered by a few centimetres.
How to Make White Vegetable Stock?
Place all the vegetables and aromatics in a large stockpot and fill it with cold water until all the vegetables are fully submerged and covered by a few centimetres. Always start cooking stock with cold water as the act of bringing it to a boil with the ingredients already in helps bring the impurities to the top.
Bring the stock to a boil and skim the scum rising to the surface using a ladle. You only need to do that once or twice and it is essential for a clear stock. Turn the heat down to low and let it gently simmer for at least an hour. Avoid stirring the stock while cooking or the impurities will turn the stock cloudy.
Strain through a fine sieve or a muslin cloth in a clean pot or bowl and let it cool down to room temperature before pouring them in jars or containers. Store it in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Top Tip From the Chef
If you want to freeze your homemade vegetable stock in glass jars, make sure you leave 3-4 centimetres of headspace in the jars when filling them up. The stock expands while freezing which causes breakage of the jar.
Recipe FAQ'S
Yes, especially homemade vegetable stock is made with all the vegetables with high in nutrition that helps our body function perfectly. It is also low in salt and full of vitamins, calcium, and iron.
You can use vegetable stock for making soups such as:
Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Celeriac, Thermomix Pumpkin Soup, Autumn Squash Soup, Red Pepper and Tomato Soup, Ezogelin Corba and Turkish Lentil Soup.
You can also make risotto dishes, pilaf dishes (Bulgur Pilaf, Turkish Bulgur Pilaf with Lentils and (Turkish Rice Pilaf) or stews (Mediterranean Green Beans, Turkish Moussaka or Turkish Lamb Stew with Chickpeas).
You can keep vegetable stock refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Cool the stock down at room temperature and then put it in jars or airtight containers before refrigerating or freezing.
Related Recipes
For other great homemade stock recipes why not try:
Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below and tag @cookingorgeous on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingorgeous.
I hope you enjoy the process of making this easy veggie stock as much as you enjoy using it in your dishes! 🙂
Bon appétit! / Afiyet Olsun!
Basic Homemade Vegetable Stock
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 1 large carrot (diced)
- 2 celery sticks (sliced)
- 1 leek (optional) (sliced)
- 4 button mushrooms or equal amount of stalks and peels (optional) (sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic (optional) (lightly crushed)
- 4 bay leaves
- 5 sprigs thyme
- 10 peppercorn
- 5 stalks parsley (optional)
Instructions
Brown Vegetable Stock
- Add olive oil to a large stockpot and put over medium heat.
- Add the onions and saute until lightly browned then add mushrooms.
- Saute mushrooms for a few minutes along with the onions and add the carrot, celery, and leek.
- Cook all together for another 5-6 minutes until they start to soften.
- Add garlic, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns, and parsley stalks (optional) and fill the pot with cold water until all the vegetables are fully submerged and covered by a few centimetres.
- Bring the stock to boil and skim the scum rising to the surface using a ladle.
- Turn the heat down to low and let it gently simmer for at least an hour, avoid stirring the stock while cooking for a clear finish.
- Strain through a fine sieve or a muslin cloth in a clean pot or bowl and let it cool down to room temperature.
- Pour in the glass jar(s) or containers and store in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
White Vegetable Stock
- Place all the vegetables and herbs you prepared in a large stockpot.
- Fill the pot with cold water until all the vegetables are fully submerged and covered by a few centimetres.
- Put the stockpot on medium heat and bring to a boil.
- When boiled, turn the heat to low and skim the scum rising to the surface using a ladle.
- Leave it to gently simmer for at least an hour, avoid stirring the stock while cooking for a clear finish.
- Strain through a fine sieve or a muslin cloth in a clean pot or bowl and let it cool down to room temperature.
- Store in the glass jar(s) in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Use any vegetables available in your fridge apart from the ones from the brassica family like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, or kale and also soft vegetables like potatoes and butternut squash.
- Always start making the stock from cold water.
- Use a large stockpot and fill it with cold water until all the vegetables are fully submerged and covered by a few centimetres.
- Gently simmer the stock on low heat and avoid stirring it while cooking.
- Store it in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months for future uses
- The stock expands while freezing which causes breakage of the jar. Therefore, leave 3-4 centimetres of headspace in the jars when filling them up.
Nutrition
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Zahar
Such an easy recipe to follow, thanks for sharing!