Having a vegan soup stock on hand is essential for any well stocked kitchen!  This recipe is super quick to prepare, but will take 4-5 hours of simmering to develop the best flavour.

*Rant Warning!

Not sure if you read labels, but ever since I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), I have become a vigilant label checker!  If you don’t read food labels, start!!  Trying to eat healthy is difficult to begin with, but once you start reading what is in your food things will begin to get even more difficult.

Want something healthy?  Go to the organic section of your grocery store right? Nope, some of the worst offenders in fact, are in this section.  Health food section or not, almost every packaged food out there has some kind of sugar added.  Sugar is added to make the food taste better, especially some of the “healthier” organic foods. The organic food will usually have cane sugar, which is still sugar and thus an inflammatory food.  Not ideal for those of us with Auto Immune (AI) diseases.

So for the past few months now, I have been in search of a pre-made vegan soup stock with ingredients I can have, which means no sugar.  No such luck, so I thought, enough of wasting my time searching, get cooking!

Ingredients

• 5 Tbs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) (I personally use a vegan butter infused EVOO)
• 5 Medium sized carrots
• 8 Stalks of celery
• 1 Large onion (I prefer red or sweet)
• 10 Cloves of pressed garlic
• 5 Bay leaves
• The stems from 1 bunch of kale
• The stems from 1 bunch of parsley
• 15 Cups of purified water (Reverse Osmosis is best)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

1. Clean carrots, celery, kale and parsley with an all-natural fruit and veggie wash
2. Remove leaves from kale and parsley and set aside for use in another dish
3. Roughly chop carrots, celery and onion
4. In a large stock pot, over medium-high heat, add the EVOO
5. Once the pan is hot, add the onion and sauté until translucent
6. Add the carrots and celery and cook for 2 minutes all the while, stirring the veggies in the pot
7. Add the kale, parsley stems & garlic and cook for another 2 minutes while stirring
8. Once the veggies are al dente add the water
9. Bring to a boil then turn heat down to a simmer so that you see tiny bubbles slowly rolling to the top
10. This is when you add S&P to taste – I would start off by adding 4 -5 Tsp of Himalayan sea salt and 15 peppercorns * Your stock will reduce and get saltier naturally, so it’s better to under season at this point and add more later if need be
11. Cook for 4-5 hours LID OFF * This is SUPER important – If you put a lid on the pot the steam produced will be trapped in the pot and will really water down your stock
12. Stir the pot every hour or so
13. After 4-5 hours check the stock to see if it has developed the flavours you want and adjust where necessary
14. Once you are happy with the taste strain soup and pour into jars the amount you will consume in a week, the rest pour into ice cube trays and freeze – This is a great tip because in the future you will only defrost the amount that you need
15. Enjoy!