Vegetarian Broth An Alternative To Bone Broth (Vg, V, Gf - Soy free option)

This is a fortified vegetable stock that has the robustness of beef, pork or chicken broth. It has 3 key ingredients; beans, dried mushrooms and miso. This seasoned broth can work for any dish that requires broth like ramen or pho or it can be enjoyed by itself. I’m all about being able to feed every dietary lifestyle in one sitting without being a short order cook. I figured if I create a delicious vegetarian broth, I can build on that. When you're making this broth, I recommend making double the batch and freezing some.

Course Broth, Entree, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Asian, Asian fusion, British fusion

Keyword soup base, stock, vegan soup base, vegetarian broth

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 3

Total Time 3 10

Servings Servings

Calories 177kcal

Author Dr. Wendy Dearborne

Equipment

Large stock pot
Large sieve

Ingredients

1 large yellow onion cut into 6 pieces
6-8 cloves garlic if fresh and in good condition leave the skin on
1 thumbs size ginger peeled and cut into large slices
4 spring onions cut into 4 pieces
1-2 cups of dried soy beans or white beans rinsed and drained
12 dried shiitake mushrooms
8-10 cups of vegetable stock
1 tbsp cooking oil
1-2 tbsp white or light miso
1 tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
1/2 tsp sugar

Instructions

In a stock pot over medium heat add a little cooking oil and sauté onions, green onions, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes.
Add vegetable stock or water, soy beans and mushrooms. Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 3 hours stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve. DO NOT press to extract all the liquid. Rinse the pot and return the strained stock.
Add 1 tbsp of the white or light miso paste and soy sauce. Mix until totally dissolved. Add sugar stir well and your done. You now have a hearty vegetable broth.
Taste and check for seasoning. What you’re looking for here is the saltiness. If your broth isn't salty enough, add one “teaspoon” of miso at a time, mix well until desired seasoning is achieved.
Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Or 6 months in the freezer.

Notes

Making a vegetable stock

I got the tip for using soy beans to make a more robust broth from School of Wok on YouTube. Soy beans really up the game for a vegetable or vegan stock. It produces a deep flavored, full-bodied broth that has a really good and doesn’t taste like boiled vegetable water.

Can I use other beans?
You can use any dried white bean and produce the same effect. DRIED cannellini beans or northern should work well. FYI: I used better-than no chicken bases bouillon – to make 8 cups of stock. But you can use any vegetable stock to make your broth. While you can use water, please be aware that you'll get a different end product. Texturally, it won't be as full-bodied and the flavor profile may be a little one dimensional.

Storage

Store in a covered container in the refrigerator or freeze for 6 months. Defrost in the refrigerator. When you make this broth, I recommend making double the batch and freezing some. But when making a double batch add miso as instructed in the recipe. 1 TBSP of miso, followed by 1 tsp at a time, until your desired taste is achieved.

Soy-free

To make this broth you can use any white bean to substitute for the soy beans. And you can use a chickpea/garbanzo bean or any other bean/grain miso.

Gluten-free

Most of the commercial miso available is gluten-free, they contain rice (kome or genmai), buckwheat (sobamugi), and millet (kibi). But check the label just in case, note that barley contains gluten. Instead of soy sauce, use tamari, which is usually gluten-free and a bye-product of making miso.

Nutrition