I have been in need of a good vegetable stock for some time. Not one of the delicate, vegetal liquids the colour of hay but something altogether deeper, richer and more ballsy. In other words, more like a brown meat stock. Such a broth would be immensely useful in my kitchen as a base for the heartier non-meat recipes that form the backbone of my daily eating, but also as something restoring to drink as you might a cup of miso. My gran would have had Bovril. The colour must be dark and glossy, the flavour deeply, mysteriously herbal with a hint of mushroom and there should be a roasted backnote, the sort you find in a long-simmered meat stock.
And so the kitchen slowly filled with the smell of onions, celery and carrots, which we roasted with miso then removed from the oven and simmered for a good hour with thyme, bay and sh*take. We slipped in a sheet of kombu for an extra layer of depth.
The broth was strained and separated from its spent aromatics, its deep, almost mahogany liquor dripping slowly into a glass bowl. I used the witches’ brew immediately with spring vegetables, letting the stock add substance to a soup of young broad beans and carrots that we ate with thick slices of chewy sourdough toast. We dunked the toast deep into the stock, letting it slowly swell with the bosky, fungal, roasted flavours from the bowl.
A roasted vegetable stock
Makes about 2 litres
onions 2, medium
carrots 250g
celery 2 stalks
garlic 1 small whole head
light miso paste 3 tbsp
water 80ml, plus 3 litres
dried sh*take mushrooms 50g
rosemary 5 sprigs
thyme 10 sprigs
bay leaves 3
black peppercorns 12
dried kombu 10g
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Peel and roughly chop the onions, then place in a roasting tin together with the skins. Similarly chop the carrots and celery stalks then mix with the onions and the head of garlic, separated into cloves.
Mix together the miso paste and 80ml of water then stir into the vegetables, coating them lightly. Bake for about an hour, tossing the vegetables once or twice during cooking, until everything is brown, fragrant and toasty.
Transfer the roasted vegetables and aromatics to a deep saucepan, add the sh*take, rosemary, thyme, bay, peppercorns and the sheets of kombu, then pour a little water from the 3 litres into the roasting tin, scrape at the sticky, caramelised bits stuck to the tin, then pour into the saucepan. Add the remaining water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and leave to simmer, partially covered with a lid, for 50 minutes to an hour.
When you have a deep brown, richly coloured broth, tip through a sieve into a heatproof bowl or large jug and leave to cool. Refrigerate and use as necessary.
Spring vegetable soup
It seems only right, having a stock of such deep, herbal joy, to let it steal the limelight. I use it here as the base for a spring soup made with young broad beans and carrots barely thicker than an index finger.
Keeping the soup uncluttered by cream or other unnecessary bits and bobs, we are free to add other vegetables as the mood takes us: small heart- shaped leaves of young spinach, lightly cooked courgettes (add them with the tomatoes) or perhaps some spears of steamed asparagus.
Serves 4
broad beans 200g (podded weight)
spring carrots 180g
garlic 3 cloves
olive oil 3 tbsp
cherry tomatoes 200g
vegetable stock a litre
parsley leaves a handful
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, salt it lightly, then drop in the broad beans and let them cook, at a rolling boil, for 6 or 7 minutes. Have ready a bowl of water with ice cubes in it. As the beans become ready, drain and drop them into the iced water. Using your thumb and forefinger, pop the bright green beans from their pale, paper skins, leaving only the very smallest unskinned.
Trim and lightly scrub the carrots, then slice each in half lengthways. Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Warm the olive oil in a deep sided casserole over a moderate heat, add the carrots and garlic and let them cook for 2 or 3 minutes, occasionally moving them round the pan.
Cut each tomato in quarters then add them to the pan, stirring them as they soften and lose their shape. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then lower the heat, letting the vegetables cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes.
Drain the broad beans and add to the soup, letting them cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes. Check the seasoning then add the parsley leaves and ladle the soup into bowls.
Greenfeast: Spring, Summer by Nigel Slater is out now (4th Estate, £22). To order a copy for £16.99, go to guardianbookshop.com
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@NigelSlater
