Lunch & Dinner

Nourishing Vegan Umami Broth

Nourishing Vegan Umami Broth

This vegan broth recipe with seaweed is made by roasting vegetables along with umami-rich ingredients (miso, mushrooms, and kombu), which gives this meat free broth a deep, satisfying flavour and a raft of extra nutrients and flavour from the addition of seaweed.

Serves 12

Prep time 4 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2-3 tbsp white miso paste, to taste (or use 1/4 cup nutritional yeast instead)

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil

  • 8 dried shiitake mushrooms

  • 4 stamp-size pieces of Kombu

  • 1 leaf of wild wakame or add wakame flakes (wakame expands on rehydration so take care with quantities

  • 2 medium onions, unpeeled, halved through the root, very thinly sliced

  • 1 medium carrot, unpeeled, very thinly sliced

  • 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced

  • 1 head of garlic, halved crosswise

  • 6 sprigs parsley

  • 2-3 thin slices of fresh ginger root

  • I piece of fresh turmeric, cut fine or 2tbsp dry turmeric

  • A handful of green leaves (spinach, silverbeet or kale)

  • 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 dry chilli – whole (optional)

  • Any fresh herb from the garden (thyme & coriander stalks are good!)

  • Optional: 5g Sea Chicory Seaweed, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes *

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
  2. Whisk miso, oil and 2 tbsp water in a small bowl (omit this step if using nutritional yeast – just add the yeast to the water after grilling the vegetables with the oil). Crush mushrooms, Wakame & Kombu Leaves with your hands over a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
  3. Add onions, carrot, celery, garlic and parsley and toss to combine. Drizzle miso mixture over vegetables and toss to coat (just coat with the oil if using nutritional yeast).
  4. Bake, tossing halfway through, until vegetables are slightly shriveled and mixture is fragrant, about 60 minutes.
  5. Transfer vegetable mixture to a large pot. Add remaining ingredients and 4 litres cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until broth is reduced, about 60 minutes. If desired, add reconstituted Sea Chicory for the last 20 minutes of simmering to release the seaweed jelly with similar benefits to that of collagen.
  6. Let broth cool, then strain through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
  7. Sip broth with fresh coriander, chilli and spring onions or cover & chill until needed (3 days) or freeze up to 3 months.

Tip:  Lovely to sip garnished with fresh coriander, finely sliced spring onion & fresh chiles or with a sprinkle of Wakame flakes.

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