A Recipe Calls For Vegetable Broth. Can I Just Use Water? (2024)

FAQs

A Recipe Calls For Vegetable Broth. Can I Just Use Water? ›

The simple answer is yes, it's usually okay to substitute vegetable stock with water. In most recipes that call for vegetable stock, its main advantage over water is that it provides flavor, which is especially important if you're making vegetarian or vegan food that's missing the richness from meat.

Fortunately, we're here to let you in on a game-changing secret: Water makes a more than acceptable replacement for chicken stock in most soups, stews, sauces, and braises. And in many cases, water actually produces a better-tasting result.

Pour water into your dish, add a few spoons of bouillon powder into the pot, and you should have a fairly easy substitute for vegetable broth.

Water is the ideal vehicle to bring all the flavor out of your soup and stew ingredients without imparting any of its own. This is nothing new, in fact: There are long traditions in Italy and France, for example, of making many soups with plain water as the vehicle.

Broth, also known as bouillon (French pronunciation: [bu. jɔ̃]), is a savory liquid made of water in which meat, fish, or vegetables have been simmered for a short period of time. It can be eaten alone, but it is most commonly used to prepare other dishes, such as soups, gravies, and sauces.

The simple answer is yes, it's usually okay to substitute vegetable stock with water. In most recipes that call for vegetable stock, its main advantage over water is that it provides flavor, which is especially important if you're making vegetarian or vegan food that's missing the richness from meat.

Chicken Broth Substitute: Salted Butter + Water

If you don't have broth on hand and want a little more flavor than just plain water, try subbing in 1 cup of water plus 1 tablespoon of butter for every cup of chicken broth in your recipe. The butter will help create a richer flavor than just water alone.

Most store-bought vegetable broth contains some combination of onion, celery, carrots, and salt – it's also common for tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and/or other seasonings to be present. That's all fine and dandy, but store-bought broths also have a lot of other preservatives, such as: Vegetable Oils.

Steer clear of veggie scraps from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower, as they can make your stock bitter. Tip: Keep a freezer bag or container of veggie scraps in your freezer and add to it whenever you cook.

Use aromatic vegetables

One of the secrets to great stock is being generous with the aromatic vegetables – onion, carrots, celery, garlic or leeks. So rather than add stock, I like to add at least one of these directly to the soup. Big flavour and no waste.

Can you dilute vegetable broth? ›

Reduced stock is a godsend to those of us who need to store it! Why not simply add water if you want more? Obviously this will dilute the stock.

Stewing is done by cooking meats and veggies in a liquid. You can make a stew with water but beef broth is a better choice. The water will pick up the flavors of the stew's ingredients, it won't be flavorless, but you'll get a better tasting stew if you use broth.

Pasta water can be used as broth in soup or an ingredient in bread. You can also use pasta water to drink or water your plants. However, you can only reuse pasta water for so long before it becomes too starchy. Make sure to discard pasta water that is very cloudy.

You could possibly substitute another stock, water, water and dry white wine, milk, really thinned out tomato puree, or even beer. I always keep some bullion paste in my pantry or fridge, or some bullion packets to use in a pinch when I don't have freshly made stock.

Consider cooking your beans in stock instead of water. Vegetable, chicken or beef stock will add a rich depth of flavor; consider chicken stock for cannellini beans, or vegetable stock for lentils. If you use stock, you may want to adjust the amount of salt you add to your beans.

Homemade broths are a relatively low lift — put things in a pot and boil it while you do other things. They're also thrifty — use up ingredients you already have or stock up on what's cheap at the store. Here's how to get started making your own broth, with a couple of next-level tips.

Chicken stock, low-sodium chicken broth, or water: I prefer chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth if I have it on hand because it adds a little more flavor, but water works equally well. Adding some liquid to the slow cooker is an essential step, and ensures that the chicken is tender and juicy.