French Onion Soup
Easy Vegetable Broth Recipe
Vegetable broth is much more than just a vegetarian condiment. In fact, a well made vegetable broth will have plenty of delicious flavor and you can use vegetable broth in many different recipes. It provides a great way to make French onion soup for vegetarians and you can also use it to make gravies, stews, and casseroles.
The following easy vegetable broth recipe is basic but full of flavor. In a professional kitchen, vegetable broth is usually made with the parts of the vegetables that would otherwise be discarded, like the tops of carrots, potato peelings, celery leaves, and vegetables, which are past their prime. If you are making a vegetable broth for your French onion soup recipe at home, you might not have saved old vegetables or vegetable peelings, so you can use whole vegetables instead. This is still a good way to use any old, rapidly softening vegetables though so check to see if anything in the refrigerator is past its best.
This vegetable broth contains garlic, soy sauce, and bay leaves to add flavor. You can add any other vegetables you like to the mixture. If you have zucchini, turnip, broccoli or any other fresh vegetable to use up, simply add it to the broth and it will give a hint of flavor to the finished vegetable broth recipe.
The Best Vegetable Broth Recipe
Ingredients -
⅓ cup mushrooms, halved
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 potato, chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
8 cups water
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation:
Put everything in a big cooking pot and bring it to a boil.
Turn the heat down and simmer the broth for an hour or two.
Discard the bay leaves and strain out the vegetables.
(Makes 9 Cups)
Uses for Vegetable Broth
Vegetable broth is a great recipe to make because you can pretty much make it for free. Use all the carrot and potato peelings, vegetables past their prime and vegetables parts you usually discard to make it, because these are rich in flavor, and you will have a wonderful vegetable broth for a few cents. You can buy vegetable broth cubes but these are not economical and they do not make a fresh tasting vegetable broth.
Cook cracked wheat, couscous, or rice in vegetable broth, instead of water, for a delicious flavor. Cooking rice in vegetable broth also seems to make it more tender. You can also sauté food in vegetable broth or meat broth, instead of using oil. Watch the food because broth evaporates (unlike oil) and the food might burn or stick. Vegetable broth can be used to make a French onion soup recipe for vegetarians, who would not eat beef broth.