After trying my favorite vegetable broth recipe, you will never want to buy boxed broth again! My homemade veggie broth is hearty, rich, and much more flavorful than you can buy at the store.
We love rich chicken and bone broths, so it was a challenge to create a meatless vegetable broth that makes us just as happy. After a few tries, we came up with this rich, hearty veggie broth recipe. I could not be happier with how this turned out. I know you’ll love it.
I often enjoy this homemade vegetable broth without anything added (it’s so satisfying) and use it as a substitute for chicken broth in my favorite soup recipes (also see these recipes for vegetable soup and creamy potato soup).
How to Make Homemade Vegetable Broth
First, roast your vegetables for a rich and satisfying broth. Roasting onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and garlic until nicely brown intensifies the broth’s flavor and adds color. The roasted vegetables add a rich, satisfying quality to the broth.
Second, add tomatoes. Tomatoes add sweetness, color, and umami. Tomatoes are naturally high in glutamate, which means they help out with that “fifth taste.” Umami makes dishes taste good, adding that super delicious quality. By adding tomatoes to the broth, it becomes rich and crave-worthy.
Finally, use dried mushrooms. Even though we didn’t add any bones or meat to this recipe, we still had to have some “meatiness” in the broth. Mushrooms are the solution. Just one ounce of dried mushrooms turns this veggie broth from okay to something you question whether it’s vegetarian.
With my three easy tricks, you can make rich, crave-worthy vegetable broth in under two hours. We sip on it during the day, have used it to make vegetable noodle soups, and have already used it in some of our favorite soup recipes. This homemade veggie broth is definitely something you should add to your kitchen (it even freezes for up to three months!).
Ways to Use Homemade Vegetable Broth
I sip on this vegetarian broth without anything added and use it to make vegetarian dishes. Some of my favorite recipes where I’ve used this hearty veggie broth are this lentil soup with lemon, this dreamy butternut squash soup with crispy chickpeas, and this hearty veggie tortellini soup. I also use it to cook rice and grains. Try swapping it for water to make quinoa or this incredible cilantro lime rice!
The Best Vegetable Broth
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This homemade vegetable broth is hearty enough to enjoy alone as soup and perfectly replaces boxed stock in your favorite recipes. Roasting is the secret to rich and hearty vegetable broth. When seasoned well, we find this veggie broth just as satisfying as bone broth.
Think of the recipe below as a guide, and feel free to add any vegetable scraps in your fridge or freezer. Leeks, turnips, or mushroom scraps are all excellent. For even more richness, we add dried mushrooms (these can be purchased online, and I often find them in the spice aisle of larger grocery stores). They pack a punch and add a “meatiness” to the broth.
You Will Need
1 pound (450g) onion, 2 medium
1 pound (450g) carrots, 5 medium
1/2 pound (226g) celery, 4 to 5
1 pound (450g) tomatoes, 3 medium
4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 ounce (14g) dried mushrooms such as porcini, oyster or shiitake
Half a bunch of fresh parsley
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 to 2 cups vegetable scraps from fridge or freezer, optional
1 teaspoon sea salt, optional
12 cups (2.8L) water, preferably filtered
Directions
- Roast Vegetables
1Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C). Set aside a large, rimmed baking sheet or a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish for roasting the vegetables.
2Peel the onion and roughly chop it into 1-inch chunks. Scrub the carrots and celery and cut them roughly into 1-inch chunks. Rinse the tomatoes, and if they are large, half or quarter them.
3Add onion, carrots, celery, tomato, and garlic to the baking sheet. Toss with olive oil and roast for 15 minutes. Stir the vegetables and roast for another 15 minutes. Stir once more and roast until the vegetables are nicely browned and the tomatoes are caving in, another 10 minutes or so.
- Make Vegetable Broth
1While the vegetables roast in the oven, cover the dried mushrooms with 1/2 cup of cold water and set aside for 5 minutes.
2Spoon the roasted vegetables into a tall stockpot. Add 1 cup of water to the baking sheet or pan, then stir it around, scraping up as much of the browned bits stuck to the bottom as possible. Pour over the vegetables in the stockpot.
3Add the parsley, thyme, bay leaves, vegetable scraps, and salt (if using).
4Add the partially rehydrated mushrooms, and then pour the water they sit in through a fine mesh strainer to catch any grit. Add the strained mushroom water to the pot with vegetables.
5Cover with 11 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook, partially covered, for 45 minutes.
6Strain broth and use immediately, refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. When using, taste the broth and adjust the seasoning with additional salt or, if you are okay with using it, a few dashes of fish sauce.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Dried mushrooms alternative: If you can’t find dried mushrooms, you can add mushroom scraps or chopped mushrooms to the onions and carrots when they roast. Dried mushrooms will taste stronger, but this will still make a delicious broth.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have omitted salt since you will need to add to your tastes.
I just made this tonight and this recipe was delicious! I took another reviewers advice and added nutritional yeast. Added roasted bell peppers with the other veg to roast and the extra veg I used was chopped Zucchini and Kale. This is better than any store bought broth I’ve ever had hands down. Thank you!
I made this and it was wonderful! If I want to start the broth late in the evening when I have some downtime, can the simmering part be done in a slow cooker overnight? Thanks!
I bet it can! I’d just do low.
I just made your homemade veg broth—wow! This is the best! I love broths and soups. So I added scrap corn cob and over grown okra. I made two batches and this first cup I am eating the veggies in it as a soup. It is great as a whole soup as well as a broth. I agree this is the best veggie broth I have made! Do yourself a favor and make it! Your body will thank you for all the minerals you will get! Usually broth helps you wake up if it’s day time and you sleep if it’s night time. Thank you so much for developing this recipe! Yay!
I know that fresh would be better but can you use dried thyme? Thank you in advance!! I cannot wait to try this!
Dried thyme is definitely an option, I’d start with 1/2 teaspoon, taste and go from there.
Okay this is the BEST- I just want to eat this for the rest of my life! It has such deep flavour and it’s so good I eat it on its own. For increased depth of flavour I recommend adding nutritional yeast (don’t skip this). This broth is wonderful 🙂 Thank you for the recipe!
Hi I’m a vegan and I was going to make this into a ramen. However we are trying to stay away from flour so I am going to make the noodles from spiraled butternut squash, spaghetti squash, acorn squash and zucchini. I just would like to know if this will last longer than 3 days in the fridge because I prep my meals a week ahead of time so it lasts the week.
The broth will likely last up to 5 days.
If you have a vacuum sealer you can store for up to 5 times longer than just sealed in the fridge. This means you can easily and safely store for at least a week.
Made this tonight and it’s the best vegetable broth I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to use this broth in my soup dishes!
I am a fan of all of your recipes. I love the taste from the roasted vegetables. I especially enjoy the broth during Lent for fasting. The broth is delicious and satisfying.
How many people does the broth serve
It really depends on what you are using it for. The recipe yields about 10 cups of broth.
Made this tonight to take to my Mom in the hospital in the morning. I went pretty much by the recipe but I added more garlic and instead of veggie scraps I had a bag of frozen edamame that I know my mom will never use anywhere else… Not sure how it ended up in her freezer .. lol. Hope she likes the broth. Hope it helps her heart… It’s still simmering in the pot I haven’t tasted it yet.
I love soups. Can’t wait to try this one.
By the way this broth sounds amazing.
Hi, I’m from Africa, Kenya in particular. I’m a fan of your recipes. I just love the clear illustrations and they are healthy too. Today I was looking for a sweet potato recipe, then I came across the lentil soup so I will try it out today. Thanks
What do you do with the cooked veggies that you strain out of the broth at step 6? All I can think of is blending them up separately into a creamy soup. Thanks.
Hi Mel, the veggies are super soft. They have given most of their flavor to the broth but you can always blend them into a soup.
I am 84 years old and my wife can’t cook anymore so I do the cooking and the buying and the shopping and I am interested in cooking Thank you John
Call me crazy for cooking up veggie broth when it’s 110 degrees out but I’m just finishing a 12-day cleanse and freshly squeezed OJ and veggie broth is the order of the day. I loved this recipe. I added sliced cucumber and lots of cilantro…not sure about the cucumber but definitely tasted notes of cilantro. It’s not for everyone but it sure was tasty to me! 🙂