How to Make Roasted Vegetable Broth

Learn how to make roasted vegetable broth in your own kitchen for soups, sauces, and when cooking grains. This vegetable stock is very flavorful thanks to roasting the vegetables in the oven before simmering them in water with herbs. For a more delicate vegetable broth, skip the roasting and just simmer in water.

by Susan Pridmore

Jump to Recipe

Want to make this recipe perfectly the first time? I want to help with that. So, check out this Table of Contents to see which sections of this post will help you the most.

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
• 🔪 Recommended Equipment
• 📝 Instructions Overview
• 🎯 Why This Recipe Works
• 👩‍🍳 Preparation Tips
• 💡Ideas for Possible Variations
• 🧊 Storage Tips
• How to Make Roasted Vegetable Broth

A flavorful roasted vegetable stock adds a lot to soups like bean soup and sauces and when cooking grains such as risotto. It allows you to infuse flavor into otherwise bland dishes, and when you make your own stock, you can adjust it to your own preferences.

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

• Easy and flavorful.
• Great way to use up orphan veggies in your refrigerator.
• Flexible. Adjust the flavors to your own preferences.
• Freezer-friendly. Make in large quantities and freeze in bags for later.

📝 Instructions Overview

Detailed instructions for how to make roasted vegetable broth are in the recipe card below, but here's an overview!

Step 1

Wash the veggies. You don't need to wash the onions if you peel off the outter papery skin, but you should clean everything else. I also don't wash the head of garlic.

• Leeks: Slice off the bottoms of roots and the dark green parts of the leeks and discard. Cut them in half lengthwise and feather the layers apart under running water. Leeks are harvested in sandy soil and the soil gets trapped between the layers.
• Carrot: Wash and if it still looks dirty, peel using a vegetable peeler.
• Celery: Slice off any damaged or frayed ends of the celery. It's fine to use any celery leaves still on the stalk.
• Mushrooms: When mushrooms are whole, either wipe the surfaces clean of any dirt using a paper towel or wash them in a little water and thoroughly dry. When the mushrooms are cut, only use the paper towel method. Don't use any water.

Step 2

Cut them up. The size and shape of the cut pieces aren't all that important, but they should be a similar size. So don't fine dice the mushrooms but only cut the leek in half.

Slice off the top one-third of the head of garlic to expose as many garlic cloves as possible.

Step 3

Roast. Arrange the veggies on the parchment paper lined baking sheet. It's fine if they touch each other but shouldn't be piled on top of each other. Depending on the intensity of flavor you want, roast the veggies at least 15 minutes but no longer than 45 minutes.

Step 4

Simmer. Fill a heavy bottomed pot with 8 cups of water and transfer the roasted veggies to the pot. Add the parsley and any other fresh herbs you want, peppercorns and salt.

Simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how infused you want the broth.

Step 5

Cool and strain. For a greater intensity of flavor, cool the broth with the veggies in the pot. Otherwise, strain the broth into a bowl. Cool and pour into mason jars.

🎯 Why This Recipe Works

• Roasting the vegetables intensifies their flavors.
• Slicing them before roasting and simmering exposes more surfaces when simmered. This allows for a stronger infusion of flavor into the water.

👩‍🍳 Preparation Tips

• Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. After roasting, all you need to do is discard the used parchment paper and put the baking sheet away.
• A good ratio to use with onion, celery, and carrots is use half as much celery as onion, and half as much carrots as celery.
• Roast the vegetables for any length of time from 15 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on the depth of flavor you want. Don't roast them longer than 45 minutes or the vegetables may start to become bitter from charring.
• For a more delicate vegetable flavor, skip the roasting step and simmer the veggies in water for 1 hour.

💡Ideas for Possible Variations

Feel free to tailor your roasted vegetable broth to what you have on hand, your own preferences, and what you plan to add the finished vegetable stock to.

Here are some vegetables and herbs that work well in creating your own broth. If you keep scraps, once you get to about 6 cups of vegetable and herb scraps, it's time to make a pot of vegetable stock.

• Turnips, celery root (celeriac), and white potatoes for an earthy flavor
• Leek and scallion (green onion) tops
• Corn cob(s)
• Cilantro, including stems
• Thyme, including stems
• Asparagus (only to make aspagus soup or asparagus risotto)
• Onion skins and shallot skins
• Celery leaves
• Mushroom stems

Steer away from these vegetables as they can make a vegetable broth bitter:

• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Asparagus, unless you're making asparagus soup or asparagus risotto
• Cauliflower
• Kale, collard greens, and mustard greens
• Peppers, especially the seeds and white pithy parts
• Fennel (some fennel fronds are fine, but don't use the fennel root as it will overwhelm the other flavors in the broth)

🧊 Storage Tips

Bring the roasted vegetable broth to room temperature and pour it into an airtight container, such as mason jars. If you plan to freeze the stock, you can also pour into quart size freezer plastic zip bags in a pre-measured amount and stack them.

• Refrigerate for up to 1 week.
• Freeze for up to 3 months.

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