Vegetable Stock Cubes / Bouillon

I want to share a really basic recipe that I use in a lot and should add here to refer to. It was the very first recipe I made by Thermomix®: Vegetable Stock Cubes / Bouillon.

At first I wasn’t sure if it was worth bothering, to be honest. Vegetable stock cubes are so cheap, and having them in a box is so convenient. But then I had a look at the ingredients and I realised that an attempt at cutting preservatives and additives out of our food falls flat if the very basic underpinning foundation ingredient contains those things.

Here are the ingredients of our usual vegetable stock cubes:

Salt, vegatable oil, potato starch, yeast extract, sugar, carrot (1.5%), tomato (1%), herbs (parsley, tarragon), spices (turmeric, pepper, celery seed), bell pepper (0.2%), garlic, leek (0.1%), flavourings (contains mustard), caramelised sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose

It’s not exactly poison, but compare it to this:

celery, carrots, onion, tomato, courgette, garlic, mushrooms, basil, sage, rosemary, parsley, oil and salt.

If I were to lay those ingredients out on a two plates, I know which one I’d go for.

While this recipe is an adaptation from the Australia Every Day Cookbook and is written for the Thermomix®, there’s no reason why you couldn’t mix it in any high powered blender and make it part of your every day seasoning.

You cant freeze this stock, due to the high salt content, but it lasts really well in a jar in the fridge, and can be topped up with whatever you have on hand, really, but here’s a great starter recipe.

Home Made Stock Cubes/Bouillon {{Thermomix® Recipe}}

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Don't taste this recipe and fret over the salt. It's VERY salty, but it's a concentrate. A tablespoon full goes into a litre of liquid, i.e soup, of which you have a cup at a time. It's lower in salt per serve than an egg! If you lower the salt amount you will have to freeze the stock, but with the correct salt, it won't freeze at all but can keep in the fridge. The great thing about this recipe is that it is very flexible. You can use whatever you have in the fridge. I know a few people who pop all their vegetable scraps into the freezer to keep particularly for making this stock concentrate.

Author: Luschka

Cuisine: Basic

Serves: 1 litre

Ingredients

• 2 celery stalks, with leaves
• 2 large carrots, cut into chunks
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 tomato, quartered
• 1 courgette, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 50g mushroom (optional)
• a teaspoon each of basil, sage, and rosemary
• 20g parsley
• 30g olive oil
• 200g sea salt or pink salt (don't use table salt, it's very high in Sodium, which is what you want to avoid in a healthy diet)

Instructions

1. Chop all the vegetables and herbs for 10 seconds on Speed 7
2. Add the oil and salt, and cook at 90 for 20 minutes on speed 2
3. It turns into an unappealing looking green gloop, but adds amazing flavour to all your dishes.
4. Leave to cool and place in a jar in the fridge for up to six months.
5. If using less salt, freeze in spoonfulls or ice cube trays and use as needed,

Nutrition Information

Calories: 2.3 Fat: 0.2 Carbohydrates: 0.2g Sugar: 0.0 Sodium: 3.8g Fiber: 0.1g Protein: 0.0 Cholesterol: 0.0

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