Mirepoix Vegetable Stock
Mirepoix Vegetable Stock is a flavorful base to soups, stews and sauces for a wide variety of cuisines.
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour hour
Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American, French, Mediterranean
Diet: SOS Free, Vegan, WFPB
Servings: 10
large cutting board
chef or Santoku knife
vegetable peeler
large stock pot and lid
clothes pin
colander /strainer
storing containers
- 2 cups onion parts (the ends, the top white layer)
- 4-6 garlic cloves
- 4-6 celery stalks (the wide parts and tops no leaves)
- 1-2 carrots (the ends and some whole if neededno peels)
- 3-4 fennel stalks and the tough outer layer save the fronds for the end
- 10 leaves stems of parsley save thefor the end
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp whole black pepper kernels
- 1/2-1 tbls whole cumin
- 1 tsp thyme and or marjoram
- 12 cups filtered water or boiled water
- 1 cup fresh herbs like parsley fennel fronds and thyme
Rinse all of the vegetables and vegetable parts you will be using and rough cut to the size you want.
To extract more flavor and a little quicker, bash the vegetable parts lightly with the back of a knife.
Preheat the stock pot to medium. Add in the onion parts and garlic (fennel and carrots) are also fine to add at this point. Carmalize them until they become fragrant and parts are golden in color, 2–4 minutes. Stir as needed to keep from burning. (This step is optional. You can skip this step and still get a wonderful tasting stock)
Add the rest of the vegetables to the pot.
Pour the filtered or boiled water in the pot.
Place the lid on with a clothes pin between the pot and the lid to allow some steam to escape. Otherwise it will boil over the pot.
Allow to simmer a minimum of 45 minutes and up to 1.25 hours. The vegetables will look faded when the extraction is complete. Turn off the burner.
At this point adding a handful of fresh herbs will brighten the flavor and a fresh herby scent will fill the kitchen.