The Charmed Kitchen

Homemade Vegetable Soup Base

I make a lot of soup and soup stock. I confess I sometimes use paste-type soup bases to stretch home made stock or to boost flavor. Some are better than others. They are also fast and very convenient. Still, I have made a lot of stuff from scratch- could I make my own soup base?  I could- and I did. I made a vegetable soup base that is a mixture of vegetables, both fresh and dried, herbs, mushrooms, nutritional yeast,  spices and salt. Now there is pretty good amount of salt but I wanted to be able to keep it in the fridge and be safe. Figured out that every teaspoonful of the mix has about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Not great,but a lot less than bullion cubes. If you want to make yours with less salt- you’ll have to freeze the mixture in ice cube trays and take it out of the freezer as needed. The nice part is I can now make a vegetable soup easily and I know exactly what is in it. It can also be added to chicken or other meat based stocks in place of the salt to add extra flavor.

Homemade Vegetable Soup Base

4 carrots, peeled and cubed

3 celery ribs, washed and cubed

1 large sweet onion, peeled and cubed

3 green onions, washed and cut up

1 c. sun- dried tomatoes

1 c. dried mushrooms, I use shitakes. Soaked  in water 10 minutes and drained

1 c. chopped cabbage

1 c. parsley, chopped

1/2 c. chopped sweet pepper

1/4 c. nutritional yeast, optional

2 T. turmeric

8 oz. salt- I used sea salt and used a scale to weigh it. Its around a cup but will differ if you are using a coarse salt

Combine all ingredients, except the salt,  in a food processor and blend until smooth. I have a decent size Cuisinart and still had to do this in batches. Combine in a bowl with the salt and stir well to blend. Store in a clean jar in the fridge until ready to use. I ended up with about 4 cups of soup base. To use add about 1 teaspoonful to a cup of hot water for vegetable broth. Use lessor more according to your taste. Use in place of salt in other soups, stews and sauces.

Some of the ingredients I used

Vegetable broth made from my mix.

Freshly made soup base