Homemade Vegetable Bouillon

Why didn't I think of this before?

I use vegetable stock to make LOTS of dishes--mashed potatoes, curries, sauces and gravies, and obviously soups, but I never thought about making my own stock. Too much time, too much work. Not interested.

But Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks posted a recipe (most annoyingly in ounces and grams instead of cups like a normal American) for a vegetable paste preserved with salt that you simply add to water to make vegetable stock. Awesome!

For this recipe, you will need about 2 lbs of vegetables. My big issue with most vegetable stocks is that they taste heavily of carrots, which just seems cheap to me. I'm going for a richer flavor, with leeks, shallots, celeriac, and dried mushrooms for depth. I used a combination of morels, chanterelles, porcini, and black trumpets.

I have a 7 cup food processor and this recipe was crawling up its walls, so if yours is smaller, half the recipe. Store the finished bouillon in jars in the freezer--it won't harden because of all the salt!

Vegetable Bouillon
makes about 2 pints

Ingredients:
2 large carrots, washed and chopped
2 leeks, washed and sliced
1 shallot, peeled and sliced
1 celeriac bulb, peeled, rinsed, and chopped
2 stalks celery with leaves, washed and chopped
1/3 cup dried mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup fresh oregano, stems removed
1/4 cup fresh thyme, stems removed
1 cup, plus 2 Tbl salt

1. Add the first four ingredients to your food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse about 20 times. Add the last ingredients and pulse until your mixture is a smooth paste, patting down the top if it isn't getting to the blades. Blend until the mixture is fully combined, at most 30 seconds.

2. Scoop into jars and keep in the freezer. Add one Tbl per 1 cup of water to make stock, adding more water or bouillon to taste.