You won't find this in my pantry...
A simple swap for stock.
Hi!
How are you? And how’s your kitchen? Mine was put to work yesterday! Abigail and I hosted a private meal prep class (interested? shoot me a note by responding to this email and we can provide details) and as we got to work on the soup, I was reminded of a little kitchen tip she and I are very fond of:
If you’re making soup and your recipe calls for veggie stock…more often than not, I think you can skip it.
I wish I were one of those cooks who has a couple quarts of stock stashed away in their freezer at all times. Those people seem very put together. But after a few years of professional cooking, and more than a few times I was caught in a lurch without homemade stock, I can finally admit the cold hard truth: I am a chaos goblin, and homemade stock is just not something I’m going to keep on hand.
And while you know I generally love a semi-homemade moment, I find store-bought veggie stock downright unappetizing. It’s often bitter, if not verging on acrid. And why is it so orange? I really dislike the stuff, but what’s a gal to do when her recipe calls for veg stock and she finds that she doesn’t have it…stocked?
Simple. Sub the veggie stock in most any recipe for good ol’ H2O. Here’s how:
Like I said, simple. Cook your recipe exactly as written, but swap the volume of stock in a given recipe for the same volume of water.
Add salt to taste. You will likely need a bit more than the recipe you’re cooking calls for, because most stocks/broths include it.
If you’re using water instead of stock and want to amp up the flavor of your soup, you can try a couple of these optional tricks:
Toss a parmesan rind in with your soup while it simmers. This will add beautiful, creamy body but without the cream.
If your soup calls for onions or garlic, you can add a bit more than the recipe calls for for that little flavor boost.
Add a dash of soy sauce (or if you’re not vegetarian, the smallest amount of fish sauce) to your soup to boost the umami factor.
Truly, that’s it. Our tip is short and sweet today because this strategy is extremely straightforward! But if you’ve ever found yourself skipping soup because you didn’t have veggie stock on hand (or are like me and find the store bought stuff unappealing), then I hope you’ll find this helpful!
Want to hear a bit more? Abigail was interviewed for Taste, where she elaborated on the idea, if you want to take a peek at that as well! And you can find the soup that this tip was born of, our Go-To Green Soup, in Meal Prep Made Simple.
Like I said, we’re keeping things brief today, but as always, I’d love to hear from ya! Are you like me? Do you despise boxed stock? Or do you have a brand that you swear by that I may have somehow missed? Shoot me a note! I love to hear from ya.
Alright, have a lovely, well-fed week ahead!
xx
Erica
I love the Better Than Bullion brand, and I keep several flavors in the fridge, as it keeps seemingly forever (most of a year), and a jar takes up way less space than a box of stock, which is simply a box of flavored water. But I agree with you that sometimes you just need to assess whether the stock flavor will be missed at all. If not, then skipping it (but adding liquid), or using your suggested enhancements is enough.