Genius vegetable stock paste

Makes about 2 x 500g jars 
1 Tbsp of stock paste makes roughly 2 cups stock

Once you've made this, you'll say goodbye to bought stock cubes, tetra packs and very expensive sachets of stock for good! 

Keep a jar of this genius stock concentrate in the freezer and you will always have the perfect base for soups, stews, risottos and more. Just don’t go eating it straight from the jar – even though this is lower in salt than many commercial stocks, it will still taste like licking a stock cube. 😂 

You’ll need a food processor to make this, and because it does all the work for you, don’t be too fussed about how you chop your veggies – you just want to make sure they comfortably fit into your food processor. You can vary this basic recipe with any herbs that you prefer or have on hand. 

Why you and your body will love this 

There’s nothing but real, whole vegetables and herbs and some good quality salt in this stock paste. No yeast or herb extracts, sugar, beef or chicken flavours, wheat, lactic acid, flavour enhancers, or artificial colours in sight – phew! Your taste buds and body will definitely thank you for that.  

What you’ll need

10 g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in ½ cup hot water for 20 minutes 
2 Tablespoons olive oil 
1 onion, peeled and quartered  
1 leek, well washed and roughly chopped  
4 garlic cloves, peeled 
3 sticks of celery with leaves, roughly chopped 
3  carrots, peeled and roughly chopped  
2 large tomatoes, quartered (use canned tomatoes in winter)
100g button or Swiss brown mushrooms, halved
1 teaspoon dried oregano 
1 teaspoon turmeric powder 
Few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
Sprig of rosemary, leaves picked
Large handful of parsley, including stems 

Pinch of dried chilli flakes, if you like
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons tomato paste (I like Mutti)
2 fresh bay leaves
65g fine sea salt (I like Olsson’s Cooking Sea Salt) 

What to do 

Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking water. Put the porcini and all the other roughly chopped vegetables and herbs up to and including the parsley into a large mixing bowl.

Working in batches, depending on the size of your food processor, add the ingredients to your food processor and blitz to finely chop.   

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the chopped veggies and herbs from the food processor – I usually add each batch from the food processor as it is chopped (it’s fine not to add all the veggies at once). Stir through the chilli flakes, black pepper, tomato paste and bay leaves. Stir over a medium-high heat for another 5-10 minutes to slightly caramelise the vegetables. 

Add the porcini soaking water and turn up the heat to evaporate the liquid. Stir in the salt and turn the heat to low. 

Cover with a lid and cook for about 20–30 minutes until all the vegetables are very soft and starting to break down, stirring occasionally to stop the veggies sticking to the bottom of your pan. 

Remove the bay leaves from the mixture. Tip the contents of the saucepan back into your food processor and process well to form a reasonably fine paste. 

Scoop into glass jars and store in the freezer for up to 6 months. The paste is soft enough to use straight from the freezer. 

© The Green Gourmet, 2021
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