Substitute for chicken stock
Posted by jkings on Nov 16, 2006 · Member since Nov 2006 · 1 posts
I recently acquired a much loved family recipe for pumpkin soup, which I've enjoyed over many holidays. I'd always been told it was vegetarian, but the recipe calls for chicken stock. After my initial shock over this "vegetarian" soup including chicken, I started thinking about substitutes. Would vegetarian broth be an acceptable substitute? Thanks!!!
I don't see why not! It should add only a pleasant leek-celery-parsley-etc. flavor and keep a lot of the same savory profile.
Alternatively, consider finding a tasty mock-chicken stock, if you're hoping to keep the taste exactly just-so. I absolutely swear by Massel's delicious vegan stock cubes (they're an Australian company which my co-op fortunately carries!--the packaging doesn't strongly advertise that they're vegan, but they are), but I've tried other vegan bouillions/boxed stocks and found them pleasing, too.
Rapunzel makes a nice bouillon cube that I think is more chick like than beef like. They also have a no-salt version! :D
veg broth should work just fine, but there are also vegetarian chicken broths available at some health food stores and also online.
The vegetarian "meat" broths kinda freak me out. Vegetable stock will be just fine. Maybe adding a little bit of olive oil to the stock would give the soup some of the rich mouth feel that chicken stock would have provided.