Adding Umami with Mushroom Stock
As a long time vegetarian, I know there are a handful of ways to add an umami element to meat-free meals. This is that elusive deeply savoury taste that meat usually brings to meals. Fermented ingredients like soya sauce and miso, nutritional yeast, and cheese all add umami. Mushrooms, especially shiitake, are especially high in umami flavour.
Mushroom stock is an excellent homemade way to add this element to your home cooking and it’s something I rely on for vegetarian meals that need that extra boost, like meat-free gravies and pies. I prefer to use wild mushrooms and freeze the stock for winter use, but store bought are good too.
I always use a mix of mushrooms but leave out expensive dried unless I’ve foraged and dried them myself. I found in testing that by searing the mushrooms before adding water and other ingredients, you get that savoury flavour without needing to seek out hard-to-find or shockingly expensive ingredients.
This post was originally published in 2022. I’ve refined and improved the recipe in the years since and have now updated with a few small changes for the best stock.
Ingredients You’ll Need and Why
For the best results, you’ll want to use a mix of mushrooms, and otherwise just a couple staples: carrot, onion, and a handful of herbs. You can find the full recipe card below, but these are a few notes from my testing process.
- Mushrooms: while button mushrooms are always easiest to find, it is key to use a mix of at least three types for this recipe. I highly recommend button or cremini, shiitake, and something like oyster to round it out. Shiitake has the strongest mushroom taste of the bunch.
- Herbs: thyme is my personal favourite here but rosemary is an excellent substitution, and other woody herbs like tarragon will also do well. I recommend leaving the bay in for additional depth of flavour. See thyme substitutions.
- Onion: this is personal preference, as I think onion tastes better than garlic here, but you could use four cloves of garlic in place of the onion.
- Vegetables: carrot is listed in the card and is a good addition. You can add other veg like leek and even tomatoes to vary the taste.
- Add-ins: if you want to drink the broth as is and not use it as a base for other recipes, consider adding some sliced ginger, garlic (crushed whole, not minced), hot pepper if you like it, and maybe a bit of miso after straining. Serve with green onion.
How to Make Mushroom Stock
I use a different method for mushroom broth than for vegetable broth – the key is to get the moisture out of the mushrooms so that the flavour is intensified. You won’t get a clear broth but the taste is excellent.
Step 1: add the oil and mushrooms to a hot, heavy-bottom pot. At this point, don’t worry if the mushrooms are crowded. I recommend a cast iron pot if you have one.
Step 2: cook to sear the mushrooms, allowing most of the water to evaporate. The mushrooms will shrink significantly and this is a good thing. Don’t worry if they’re sticking a little bit.
Step 3: stir in the onion and carrots. No need to sauté these vegetables.
Step 4: add water, seasonings, and herbs, then bring to a boil. You’ll season to taste again at the end so don’t worry about trying the broth yet.
Step 5: cook for about an hour with the lid tipped to let steam escape. This intensifies the stock.
Step 6: strain the broth and taste, then season as needed and use or store. I compost the vegetables at this point but if you don’t want to do that, you could try blending them up into a pâté or use them for the soup.
Expert Tips for the Best Broth
- Season depending on use: this is a broth, not a soup, so the level of seasoning is a bit less. I prefer to add salt after adding the broth base to my soups as the amount needed will vary (if I’m adding miso, or using pasta, and so on) so this reflects that.
- Add dried: if preferred, you can add dried mushrooms to the broth for a stronger taste. About 20 grams, or a small handful, will be enough. This can be any type of dried mushroom you like but will most often be shiitake.
- If foraging your own: to use wild mushrooms, any edible boletus variety is both delicious in this stock and relatively easy to find growing wild across Europe and North America. I typically use a mix of boletes and parasol to make stock if I have enough to do so. Chanterelles are best kept for other uses.
- Don’t wash the mushrooms: ideally, mushrooms should simply be brushed or gently wiped with a dry cloth. If there is some concern about the growing material, they can be washed, but should be dried fully again before cooking.
- Use a big pot: the mushrooms need some space or they will boil rather than searing. I don’t have a large enough pot so I sear them in two batches, then add them all back to the pot before adding the other ingredients.
Where to Use Mushroom Broth
This is a vegetarian staple recipe and while you can use this stock just about anywhere you would typically add another broth or stock, sometimes it’s particularly good. Think hearty meals or grain-based dishes.
- Use it to replace vegetable broth in this biscuit topped vegetarian pot pie and vegan gravy for extra savoury flavour. The gravy is made without mushrooms but using mushroom stock will add an umami note without the texture.
- Add to this mushroom pot pie to replace water for a stronger mushroom flavour. The gravy is tasty as is but if you want more oomph, this is the way to do it.
- Make a meat-free mushroom gravy to top mashed potatoes or dumplings.
- Switch up your brown rice risotto with this instead of plain vegetable broth to add extra depth of flavour. While I wouldn’t recommend using mushroom broth to make the risotto pictured in that recipe, with wild garlic pesto, it makes a delicious mushroom risotto.
Mushroom Stock
Description
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 300 grams (10.5 oz) cremini mushrooms roughly chopped
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) shiitake mushrooms roughly chopped
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) oyster mushrooms or similar, roughly chopped
- 1 large carrot roughly chopped
- 1 small onion halved and roughly sliced
- 2 litres (8 cups) water
- 1 small handful thyme or other herbs
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 black peppercorns
- 2 teaspoons sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large wide-base pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once the pan is hot, add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring as infrequently as possible, until lightly golden and any water has evaporated. Do this in batches if necessary.2 tablespoons olive oil, 300 grams (10.5 oz) cremini mushrooms, 100 grams (3.5 oz) shiitake mushrooms, 100 grams (3.5 oz) oyster mushrooms
- Stir in the carrot and onion, then add the water, herbs, peppercorns, and salt.1 large carrot, 1 small onion, 2 litres (8 cups) water, 1 small handful thyme, 1 bay leaf, 4 black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons sea salt
- Cover and increase the heat to bring the stock to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer, with the lid tipped to let steam escape, for one hour. It shouldn't reduce by more than about a quarter, so if it's reducing too much, turn down the heat or cover.
- After simmering, the vegetables should be well cooked and the broth should be cloudy and golden. Strain the broth into another container, like another pot, through a fine mesh sieve and use or discard the vegetables.
- Taste and season to your taste. Transfer the broth into container(s) and use or store as needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
What would be a good use for the vegetables strained from the broth? Hoping not to waste them.
Hi Shay, you could add them to a soup (like ramen) with the stock base if you’d like. The texture of the mushrooms is very soft and water-logged after simmering and they don’t have much of a flavour, but you can certainly still use them. You could also try blending them up into a kind of pâté with some cooked onion, garlic, and olive oil.