Ultimate Gemuse Boulion

“In water, fish screw,” as folk wisdom says — so in vegan or plant-based cooking, there’s no place for water. Because that wouldn’t be vegan.

Seriously, though: cooking soups, sauces, etc., using juice, oat milk, or broth instead of plain water lifts them to a whole new level.

I developed this broth over several years, starting in 2020, when I received an unexpected gift for the kitchen.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bundle of soup vegetables with cabbage
• 30 ml oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 dried figs
• 50 g brown lentils
• 4 L of water
• optional: parsley stems, woody ends of green asparagus

METHOD:
Cut the root vegetables into large chunks, and cut the onion in half.
Add the oil, root vegetables, and onion to a pot.
Fry them hard — until well browned, even slightly charred.

Pour in cold water, add the cabbage, leek, figs, and lentils.
Optionally add parsley stems and/or asparagus ends.

Simmer over VERY LOW heat — only occasional bubbles should appear — covered,
for 3 hours or longer.

Let cool.
Strain.
Use as needed.

VARIATIONS:
As I mentioned, this broth underwent many iterations along the way — and I strongly encourage experimentation. Light soy sauce, garlic, or dried vegetables instead of fresh ones all work well.

NOTES:
Green asparagus ends are packed with umami, and parsley stems add extra classic broth flavor.
Parsley stems can also be added straight from the freezer.
Another interesting umami booster is a tomato added to the broth — ideally one that’s already too soft for sandwiches.

The gift I mentioned was several dozen kilograms of mixed dried vegetables. Wanting to use them somehow, I started cooking broth from them. Since then, I’ve revised the recipe several times (one version included soy sauce). After the dried vegetables ran out, I started buying soup greens for broth at Edeka — two or three carrots, a piece of celery root, plus a parsnip, some cabbage, and a small leek.

What matters most — and what I consider my contribution to humanity — is the addition of figs and lentils.
That means adding sugars and protein, which enables the key Maillard reactions during cooking that build depth and intensity of flavor in the broth.

In classic broth, the protein source is meat, bones with meat, etc.

This is another example of something I’ve been repeating for years:
One of the most common mistakes in plant-based cooking is the mindset: “I’ll remove the meat, and it becomes a veggie dish,” or “I’ll remove the meat and replace it with just anything.”

No — that’s a mistake. A BIG mistake.

Meat serves functional roles in food, above all as a protein source (and fat — though modern diets already contain more than enough fat, especially saturated fat). If we remove meat from a recipe, we should replace it with something protein-rich.

As this broth shows, it’s not only about nutritional protein needs — protein is also necessary for proper flavor development in what we cook.

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