Here’s something fun that you can make to set yourself up for endless future wins in the kitchen. This freezer bouillon is a great thing to have on hand for those times when you don’t have veggie stock or just don’t want to buy any. Add a few teaspoons to your soup or sauce, and you’ll end up with a rich flavor base with very minimal effort. Inspired by both curry paste and a brilliant ‘Souper Mix’ recipe from The River Cottage Preserves Handbook, this freezer bouillon is essentially just a combination of different, whole food aromatics that you’d typically find at the base of any soup or broth, plus salt. The beautiful thing about this recipe is that there are no strange preservatives or weird ingredients that you might find in store-bought bouillon – just good old veggies and a few other, non-sketchy flavor enhancers.
Today we’ve got two variations on the theme: a ‘classic’ freezer bouillon, based on the mirepoix trio of onion, celery, and carrot, and a ‘fiery’ variation, kind of like curry paste but without all the spices, starring, ginger, shallots, garlic and more.
To make both of the bouillon variations, you just pulse up veggies and salt into a fine, pesto-like paste in the food processor. Distribute the bouillon among containers, label, and keep in the freezer. Because of the fair amount of salt in the recipe, the paste doesn’t completely freeze in the freezer and is easily scoopable. The salt also helps it keep for a really long time – pretty much indefinitely in my experience. This is a concentrated product and a little is meant to go a long way, so if you taste it as is, it will taste very salty and strong.
I like to use the ‘classic’ bouillon variation in all kinds of legume-based soups like lentil soup and minestrone, and in rich sauces like mushroom bolognese. The ‘fiery’ version is really lovely in all kinds of curries and healing soups, meant to help clear the sinuses. But really, there are no rules for how and where you can use this bouillon, it’s really fun to experiment with.
Just the other day, I cooked up a pot of plain chickpeas (just chickpeas and salt) and wanted to make a quick, single serving of chickpea soup for lunch. I heated up some olive oil in a small pot, added about a teaspoon of the classic bouillon, and let it get fragrant for about a minute. I then added the chickpeas to the pot with about 2 cups of their cooking water, brought everything up to a simmer for a few minutes, and wilted in some spinach at the end. I ended up with the coziest bowl of soup and a very flavorful, warming broth in just a few minutes. Hope you’ll give this a try this year!
- 1 yellow onion - peeled, roughly chopped
- 1 leek - white and light green part only, roughly chopped
- 2 medium carrots - roughly chopped
- 3 celery ribs - roughly chopped
- 1 head garlic - cloves peeled
- 1 bunch parsley - stems included, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste (optional)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup sea salt
- Combine all the vegetables in a food processor in batches, roughly pulsing them and adding more as you go. Periodically scrape down the sides of the food processor to get everything nicely incorporated. Add the tomato paste, if using, oil, and salt, and finish processing into a pesto-like paste. Add another tablespoon of oil if your food processor is having a hard time getting going. Let the paste cool down to room temperature if it got warm while processing.
- Distribute the bouillon paste among sealable containers, leaving about 1" of space at the top (the paste will expand when frozen). Close and label the containers and place in the freezer. The bouillon should keep frozen indefinitely - it will not freeze solid because of the salt in the recipe.
- To use: use about 1 teaspoon of the bouillon per 1½ - 2 cups of water. Either add the paste directly to boiling water or sauté it up in oil for a few minutes before adding water.
- 2 shallots - peeled, roughly chopped
- 6-8" total of ginger pieces - peeled if not organic, roughly chopped
- 1 head garlic - cloves peeled
- 2 medium carrots - roughly chopped
- 1 jalapeño or serrano pepper - seeded, roughly chopped (optional, include for more heat)
- 1 bunch cilantro - stems included, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon white miso (optional)
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder (optional)
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or olive oil
- ¼ cup sea salt
- Combine all the vegetables in a food processor in batches, roughly pulsing them and adding more as you go. Periodically scrape down the sides of the food processor to get everything nicely incorporated. Add the miso and turmeric, if using, oil, and salt, and finish processing into a pesto-like paste. Add another tablespoon of oil if your food processor is having a hard time getting going. Let the paste cool down to room temperature if it got warm while processing.
- Distribute the bouillon paste among sealable containers, leaving about 1" of space at the top (the paste will expand when frozen). Close and label the containers, and place in the freezer. The bouillon should keep frozen indefinitely - it will not freeze solid because of the salt in the recipe.
- To use: use about 1 teaspoon of the bouillon per 1½ - 2 cups of water. Either add the paste directly to boiling water or sauté it up in oil for a few minutes before adding water.
Maude says
Thanks a lot for sharing! I definitively got to give it a try!
Anya says
Hi Maude,
Amazing! Hope you’ll love it.
Gaelle //My Nomad Cuisine says
What a fantastic idea! I used to make my bouillon powder by dehydrating vegetables and blending that into a fine powder. Unfortunately I left my bulky dehydrator at my parents’ home in France (I currently live in England), so can’t make it at the … I can’t wait to try your freezer bouillon recipe! Thanks for the inspiration!
Anya says
That’s so clever! I bet it was so good. Hope you enjoy the freezer version :)
Marjorie says
Thanks for the recipe. What a great, simple et tasty idea !
Anya says
Thanks so much Marjorie!
Gabriella @ Putumayo Kitchen says
This is such a brilliant idea! Especially looking forward to trying the spicy variation. Thanks for sharing, Gabriella x
Clara says
What a wonderful idea! Thank you so much ?
Anya says
Thanks so much for your note Clara!
lucie says
Such a clever cooking hack! Thank you for sharing!
Anya says
Thank you Lucie!
June says
May I know if it’s a better idea to saute the bouillon paste before freezing? Will the flavour deteriorate?
Just thinking if that would be more convenient, I don’t need to saute it every time. Just pop it into hot water and I’ll have curry/soup.
Anya says
Hi June,
You can just add it to boiling water without sautéing – we do that all the time, sautéing is an optional step. Not sure about cooking it beforehand, but I think it would probably work. Please let us know how it goes if you try that!
Lesley says
Hi June & Anya,
I made the recipe as is and found the raw taste of the onions and garlic very harsh, even when 1 tsp. was add to 1.5 cups of boiling water, and boiled for an additional few minutes.
I then added 1.5 tbsp creamed preserved lemons and fried the entire batch on a pan over medium heat with some ghee. I could have used oil too. The result was MUCH better.
I love this idea of a freezer vegetable bouillon. Great job for creating it!
Anya says
Hello Lesley,
Yes, sautéing the bouillon essentially cooks the ingredients and makes the flavors deeper and more mild. Glad you found a way that works for you! I usually add the bouillon directly to water when I know I’ll be cooking the liquid for a while, for example, when cooking soup/stew or making rice/grains.
Lesley says
Hi June,
I sautéed the bouillon in some oil and prefer the taste this way much better. I found without sautéing, the bouillon mixed with water had a very harsh taste.
Carolyn says
In theory, this is a great idea . However I made the classic version exactly as printed, and it was SOOOOOO. salty! I tried to sweeten by adding brown sugar but to no avail . Perhaps people should start out 1 T at a time ?
Anya says
Hi Carolyn,
I’m so sorry you had that experience!
It’s a concentrate so it should be quite salty, and the salt also keeps it from freezing completely and allows it to stay scoopable. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you use it? I use the bouillon all the time with great results, so I just wanted to understand what could have gone wrong.