It’s Grocery Month at Epicurious, and we’re thinking about super-fast checkout lines, alternative mylks (not a typo), and the cheapest bottles of olive oil (and wine). Check out the complete serieshere.
It will come as no surprise when I tell you that as a (mostly) vegetarian cook, I rely heavily onvegetable broth. Water doesn't cut it for me when I'm adding liquid to mybeanstosauces—I prefer a liquid with more flavor, like broth, stock (yes,there is a difference), wine, or evenvegetable juice.
But what might surprise you is that when I need said broth, I useBetter Than Bouillon.
This started a few years ago, while cooking a big pot ofminestrone soupwith my sister. I asked for the vegetable broth, she handed me a jar of "food base" instead. As she scooped out a few spoonfuls of the stuff into our pot, she explained that it was a broth concentrate, a paste of carrot, onion, celery, tomato, potato, garlic, salt, and spices that can be added to water to create an instant broth.
Once I tasted the resulting soup—rich and hearty and packed withumami—there was no turning back. I started using Better Than Bouillon all the time.
Unlike bouillon cubes and powder, which are made from primarily from salt (lots of it), sugar, and hydrolyzed protein, BTB vegetable base is made from, well, vegetables. (Note that there's a Better Than Bouillon variety to suit every cooking need: the base comes in beef, chicken, mushroom, and roasted garlic, as well as low-sodium and organic versions.) Plus, it keeps forever, unlike a box of vegetable broth, which will go bad after just a few days sitting around in the fridge.
现在我把我的冰箱和一罐BTB回来-up jar in the pantry—at all times. And because it's so big in flavor, I shamelessly add a spoonful of it to anything. I put it instir fries,soups,grains bowls,ragouts—anything that calls for a boost of umami. I even use it for—surprise, surprise—soups.
