Question
Julie Cannon
Do you ever use other vegetables for veg stock, besides the usual onions, carrots, celery, leeks?
Answer
Probably one of my favorite alt stocks to make is actually a mushroom stock. So I do a couple different broths that way. A lot of times, I'll do it for a mushroom soup, or if I'm going to do a mushroom stroganoff or something like that, I will start out by making a mushroom broth. And I'm typically going to use dried mushrooms, and I'll do a variety from shiitake to get really pungent to a host of different ones, kind of whatever I have on hand to be able to make that happen. I'll usually throw in a couple onions with that as well, too, just to round out the flavor a bit. And if I'm doing something, a lot of times, I'll do a ramen broth as well, and I'll add a little kombu into it, too. But that's kind of a basic, simple broth with just a couple ingredients. By and large, when I'm doing broths, I usually do scraps from all the stuff that I basically throw into a freezer bag throughout the week when I'm prepping all my vegetables, and we'll fill up freezer bags and then dump that into a big pot, pour water over the top of it, bring it to a boil, and then right down to a simmer for about an hour. And that's my typical no-sodium veg stock that I'll use. Now, depending on the soups you're doing, you can absolutely go with a variety of different vegetables to be able to get the flavors you're looking out of them. One of the more popular ones in our Plant-Based Pro courses is a faux stock, which is pretty nice, too. Very unique flavor profile in that, too, using star anise and different spices, along with some citrus in it as well, too, which you have to get the timing on just right, because if you cook the citrus too long, it can make it really, really bitter. So there are a variety of different ways to be able to make vegetable stocks besides just your usual mirepoix. So definitely experiment around with a couple things. Just make sure that you are matching your flavor profile for whatever you're using it for to the ingredients that are going into your stock. Hope that helps, Julie.
