Mushrooms for me.

dcarch

I always add some kind of sea vegetables (kombu, nori, kelp, wakame).

There are a few you may want to avoid, as well (or avoid in large quantity). I avoid the cabbage family (including sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower) because they can be overpowering. Asparagus is another vegetable that can be overpowering - it depends on how much.

Vegetables (and vegetable scraps) to use are: onions (including clean skins, root, and stem ends of onions), garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, celery, mushrooms, peas, corn (empty corn cobs can also add lots of flavor to veg. stock), parsley, green beans, beets (and you'll get red stock), bell peppers, scallions, green onions, shallots, fresh basil or other herbs, etc.

-Grainlady

Oh, dehydrated vegetables.

Dehydrated vegetables do not taste like the original fresh ones. They add interesting tastes.

dcarch

The regular, onions, garlic, celery and carrots. I usually have some asparagus stalks, occasionally some bell peppers and whatever else might be in the veggie bin in the fridge. I have never done mushrooms, but that does sound very interesting. Think I will give that a try the next time I make vegetable stock.

I always use onions, celery and carrots, but not garlic. Also rutabagas, a small turnip, and a celery root. If I want more flavor, I'll put in some peppers, both bell and picante. I'm with Grainlady about the cabbages. Cabbage in soup, yes, but not in the stock.

The other thing is protein. Some people add protein powder, often pea protein. I've been known to make bean water (diluted mashed and strained beans).

Mushrooms are known to have lots of Umami.

Also, instead of salt, try miso paste. You may find it adds great complexity to veggie soups.

dcarch

Thanks, everyone.

Yes, I think mushrooms add a nice richness, dcarch. Unfortunately I live in a super humid climate (humidity hasn't below 83% for several weeks and is usually more like 95-97% lately), and don't have a dehydrator or an oven that does low temps well, so dehydrated is a little tough to manage.

Grainlady, thanks. I do usually throw in the stem ends of asparagus if I have any around, but there usually isn't that much. I've also used broccoli stems, but currently I'm growing Happy Rich (broccoli x gai lan) and there really aren't any leftover stems with that.

Prairie_rose, thanks. Definitely you should give the mushrooms a try. I usually save the stems for stock.

Oops, we cross posted plllog and dcarch. Yes, I don't usually put garlic in the stock--I'd rather be able to control that in whatever the stock goes into.

Miso? Never thought of that. I'll have to try it sometime.

I was comparing the things that I usually put in for stock. Grainlady, you put in things that are not readily available to me--like pea protein, miso, sea vegetables. Where on earth do you buy this stuff? You must keep a grocery store on hand. Also, seems to me I heard something not too good about miso, but I am not sure now what it was.Thanks for the explanation. Can you keep this stock frozen? Barb

Popping in to this forum from decor. I do love that new feature that highlights trending posts! DH roasts the veggies before he makes the veggie stock. It makes the best soup I have ever had. Very rich flavor.

>DH roasts the veggies before he makes the veggie stock.

What a good idea, considering how much better chicken or turkey stock is if you double roast the bones. Probably a similar effect to dehydrating the way dcarch suggested.

barb roselover in-

Yes, I do keep a "grocery store" on hand as a matter of fact, it's called our home food storage (LOL).

I live in the middle of "Nowhere" Kansas, just outside of "Nothing" where the wheat grows (a 1/2-mile from my home on the edge of town and the cattle graze not far from there), and most things I use I have to order via Amazon.com, Vitacost, Swanson Vitamins.... Although our new Dillon's Super Store (Kroger affiliate) has a pretty good health food and International Foods section.

dcarch mentioned miso. When I was following Macrobiotic Dietary Recommendations for my health back in the late 80's, I ate vegetable broth two or three times a day and usually added miso, which was available at the lone health food store in town (it wasn't even a mom and pop store, just pop ;-). Now I avoid soy so I don't use miso any longer, but I still make vegetable broth all the time because it's a good use of food that normally gets tossed, or dies of loneliness in the refrigerator. (Wasted food is the most expensive we purchase; and on a $125/month food budget for two adults, not much gets wasted.) And I'll be adding more dehydrated veggies (something I have an abundance of - thanks for that tip as well dcarch ;-).

Plllog mentioned pea protein (great tip BTW! - it's so good for the kidneys) while I've occasionally added agar-agar (gelatin derived from seaweed).

I never quit studying foods and their health effects, so that's how I've managed to find so many odd-ball ingredients to incorporate into our diet, and with my insatiable need-to-know, I have a lot of books to support it.

-Nourishing Traditions - by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

-Zen Macrobiotic Cooking - by Michel Abehsera

-The Ayurvedic Cookbook - by Amadea Morningstar with Urmila Desai

-The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia - by Rebecca Wood (author of The Splendid Grain, another great book)

Just to name a few....

-Grainlady

Seaweed.

I add some seaweed sometimes for additional nutrition, and interesting taste.

dcarch

Never thought of adding pea protein nor miso. Good ideas.

Whether I roast the veggies first, or not, depends on the flavor profile I want for the stock. Roasting them makes for a dark stock, which is wonderful, but if you want a lighter stock, skip the roasting.

If I'm making the veggie stock for a recipe, which is usually the case, I'll add to my stock the refuse of whatever the star ingredient is of my recipe. For instance, for Christmas dinner, I made Sharon's (Chase) spinach enchiladas. Instead of using chicken stock, which the recipe calls for, I subbed veggie stock. I put the stem trimmings of the spinach into the stock to boost the spinach flavor...and I love a good pot licker from leafy greens. When I make squash soup, I add the insides of the squash to the stock, ect.

I haven't added asparagus trimmings to my stock, since it has such a unique flavor. I do have containers of them frozen for when I make something with asparagus, besides just simple asparagus.

Sally

My stock is a hodgepodge. I toss vegie scraps into a bag in the freezer. No cruciferous, asparagus or beets. I do like to add tomato and mushrooms, and fennel is good. And I agree about the dehydrated vegetables, dcarch...they give a good flavor and I feel less wasteful when I clean out my old dried food. Not too much carrot or corn because we don't like it sweet. I tossed some dehydrated corn and carrots into a batch once...way too sweet.

When I get a stockpot full, I simmer it down, strain and freeze. By the end of the garden, my freezer is full of assorted stocks that get dumped together, simmered down to a concentrate and frozen in ice cube trays.

I just read a recipe in CI that's supposed to come out like the paste type veg base. The raw ingredients are ground up in a food processor and the salt keeps it from solidifying in the freezer:

2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped and washed thoroughly (2 1/2 cups or 5 ounces)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2/3 cup or 3 ounces)
1/2 small celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (3/4 cup or 3 ounces)
1/2 cup (1/2 ounce) parsley leaves and thin stems
3 tablespoons dried minced onions
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons soy sauce

Thanks so much for the additional hints about the ingredients in the vegetable stocks. I have a "taster mind" that definitely is formed by the looks, and for some reason, the looks of the dark colored stocks turn me off. It's all in my head, I know. That was what it was about the miso, now that you reminded me, grainlady. It was the soy. I have what they refer to as a slow thyroid (it's getting slower, too), and it is next to impossible to lose weight with this problem. I used to have no trouble. I appreciate so much your knowledge, grainlady, and we are so lucky that you are willing to share. This turned into a long thread. Thanks to everybody who shared.Nobody answered my question about keeping it frozen. Do any of you puree or do you just separate the ingredients from the stock? Barb

I tend to toss pretty much anything into my veggie stock. Onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorn, parsley- for base. Then goes in mushrooms, root veggies like rutabagas, parsnips, turnips... sometimes broccoli or cauliflower stems if I have them on hand. Sweet peppers and tomatoes, if I have dehydrated ones on hand. Green beans and peas.
I agree with others that I skip cabbage because it can lend too strong of a taste. I tend to skip corn because I make straight corn stock from fresh cobs. I tend to skip using squash and sweet potato because I find it sweetens the stock too much for me.

Roasting veggies adds good flavor, as can using dehydrated veggies.

I never add salt or other flavoring products that contain salt- both because we watch the salt around here, and because I like to add salt as I want when I'm actually using the stock.

To give more oomph and save on freezer space, I condense my stocks. Like if I start out with 2-3 gallons of water, that will end up being a half gallon to maybe a gallon of stock by the time I'm done reducing it. You need a lot of water to start with to really submerge your stuff and to give yourself enough hours of simmering time. But you don't want your stock to be too thin tasting by the time it's done.

>Nobody answered my question about keeping it frozen. Do any of you puree or do you just separate the ingredients from the stock?

I boil it down, strain and freeze in ice cube trays.

Katiec, I've seen an almost identical recipe for something called "raw bouillon", only it didn't have tomato paste.

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't realize this would turn into such an interesting thread.

"----I boil it down, strain and freeze in ice cube trays---"

Here is my way:

I use Ziplock bags, lay it flat on cookie sheets to freeze into a flat slab, about 3/4" thick. I can stack the slabs in the freezer and save room. It's not hard to cut a piece off for cooking.

dcarch

I cook it down until there's nothing much left but strings and fuzz, from which all the flavor and goodness has gone, then strain it to have a clear stock without the solids. After that, I freeze both in blocks (3-8 cups, depending on what I think it's for), as well as some ice cubes. After the cubes are set, I transfer them to a plastic bag so they don't evaporate.

Sorry, I didn't notice that question. I freeze mine in quart size yogurt containers. That way, I have quarts of stock at a time. I hadn't thought of condensing it, or pureeing the boiled vegetables. I'm not sure I'd want to do that, but I may experiment with it the next time I cook up a batch.

Sally