Potato and Brocolli Soup
Last night I made a potato and brocolli soup recipe from The Frugal Vegan’s Harvest and Holiday Survival Guide, a cookzine I picked up in New York last year. The zine itself is nicely laid out with lots cheap, tasty recipes and fun commentary and gift ideas. This recipe in particular was perhaps the easiest soup recipe I’ve ever made and may become a good go-to dish when time or patience is short. The base recipe was a bit salty, probably due to the vegetable stock (in this case, a Better Than Bullion base). Otherwise, it was a thick and creamy soup worthy of repeat performances. I’ll post the recipe shortly.
As a side note, I’m not that enamored with the Better Than Boullion vegetable base. Sure, their slogan (“You’re in for a Treat! It’s the Bouillon Made from Meat.”) sucks, but it’s more that the flavor really doesn’t offer anything over a decent low salt powder. (Time to come clean: I rarely make vegetable stock from scratch. I know I lose points and may be kicked out of the vegan club.)
I won’t kick you out. We always buy a big, resealable container of organic veggie stock. It’s simply cheaper, faster, easier. I don’t see the point in doing your own from scratch unless you really can taste the difference and you simply can’t eat anything else.
My philosophy is why make stock from veggies and then throw out the veggies themselves? If a recipe calls for stock, I just throw in a little extra onion, carrot, and celery, which is what I’d make stock from anyway. Works like a charm and doesn’t waste veggies!
Fantastic Foods makes excellent powerdered soup mixes for when you need boullion powder. FF is all vegetarian, mostly vegan foods, so they’re pretty cool. If you need liquid stock, Imagine Foods makes a great vegetable boullion, plus a No-Chicken Broth. If a recipe calls for stock, don’t try to use boullion mixed with water; use stock.
Great, now I have to fess up too!! I never make my own stock. I would love to, but I really don’t get time to do so. It’s a lovely idea, but I need some shortcuts, as we all do! I haven’t tried the bouillon you mentioned. I did see it at the grocery store last weekend, but as you said, it didn’t look spectacular based on the ingredients.