Vegan Broth — Vegetarian Soup Stock

Over the last few years, bone broth has become a huge thing in the wellness and paleo communities. Here’s the thing, though; that stuff is made from bones, which, clearly are not something that I eat.

So, health benefits or no; bone broth is not for me.

I thought I would try to come up with a vegetarian or vegan version of bone broth, and the results are quite pleasing. I made this in my slow cooker, because it’s the lazyperson’s way (and I am, especially this time of the year), but you could also make this in a big pot on the back of your stove. Just don’t cook it as long. In my slow cooker, I let it go for 24 hours, but if I were making this on the stove, I’d only let it go 4-6 hours.

There are some special ingredients in my broth that make it extra good. First off, I keep the skins on the onions. Not only is that super lazy (yay!) but it gives the broth a nice, rich brown colour. Secondly, I use dried shitake mushrooms. They give a nice earthiness to the broth. Thirdly, I use miso paste. This contributes umami flavour, and the miso paste is fermented, which is great for your gut health. Finally, I add kombu, which is a dried Japanese seaweed. In addition to adding iron to your broth and all the other good things in seaweed, kombu is also a source of natural MSG (not the manufactured stuff that’s bad for you), which makes your broth super tasty. I might also add some nutritional yeast for additional flavour and Vitamin B if you have it around.

The video contains a further tip on how to keep your broth a long time.

One last tip: I keep a ziploc bag in my freezer with vegetable scraps in it, and when it’s time to make stock, I just dump that in with my aromatics and all the other good stuff. Feels good to make less waste!