Vegetable Stock Or Vegetable Broth

From This …

To This!

Often vegetable stock and broth are used interchangeably in recipes. So what is the difference? After researching these two, stock vs broth, it is still a little unclear. But I like to make it simple. My take … The biggest difference is in the seasonings. Broth has seasonings making it immediately palatable while stock is ready to be seasoned and manipulated in a recipe. This recipe may resemble a broth more closely. I use this broth routinely for recipes that ask for either … Even in recipes asking for chicken or beef stock or broth. I do pay close attention to salt and other seasonings when adding this broth to recipes.

I am preparing this recipe specifically to use in a chunky root soup, next post. The nice thing about this recipe … You can add vegetables you have on hand. However, these basic ingredients are required … onions, celery and carrots … and for me, garlic too.

Recipe

Makes 16 cups of broth when vegetables removed

2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 Large yellow onion-peeled & quartered
1 Large shallot-peeled & quartered
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
One-half large leek-washed and several outside peelings used or use the entire leek
3 Cloves garlic-peeled & crushed
1 Medium celery root-peeled or 4 stalks of celery with tops (or combination)
2 Carrots-unpeeled and scrubbed
2 Parsnips-unpeeled and scrubbed
One Fennel (anise) bulb-a portion of the tops included-washed and bad spots cut out
One large turnip-no tops-peeled
About one cup of flat leaf parsley-wasted and most of stem removed
16 Cups of water
One Tablespoon of salt
15 Peppercorns
One large bay leaf
One tablespoon of soy sauce (optional)

These are but a few that also can be added:

Broccoli
Potato-scrubbed & unpeeled
Tomato
Sweet potato-peeled

This prep time is very quick and easy. I use a 8 quart stock pot. Heat the olive oil and add the onion, shallot and cook for about one minute. Start adding all the other ingredients. Cut the vegetables small enough to fit into the pot with ease. No need to dice. Everything will cook up. Add the water and bring everything to a simmer. Cook for 2 hours … 3 hours if time allows. Strain the vegetables out. I use a mesh strainer. The vegetables I use are very fresh with minimal peelings included. After removing the bay leaf and the peppercorns the vegetables can be whirled in a blender and potentially used in other recipes depending on the vegetable combination used.

Next Post: Chunky Root Soup using this broth.