I need a good vegetable stock for a sauce base?

something cool my mom does for veggie soup stock is boil carrots and celery and then puree them, so it is thick and oh so yummy and you have a thicker base instead of broth

celery carrots onions and a bay leaf are classic.

Americas test kitchen suggests an amazing alternative which I thugh worked great.

Take a very large yellow or white onion and mince it. Sauttee it in a little oil, but do not brown it. Do this for 10-15 minutes until the onioin is almost gone. Add 1/2 gallon of water and boil together for 20 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Easy enough.

No meat stock for all the vegetarians. Vegetable dishes are greatly improved by using a vegetable stock instead of water. Use them as a gravy base or soup stock, or any time you'd otherwise use a broth. It is convenient to make them up and freeze them in batches for later use. From Dr Weil

2 medium leeks

4 onions

6 carrots

3 stalks celery

1 bunch parsley stems

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons large-leaf marjoram

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

3 Turkish bay leaves (or 1/2 California bay leaf)

Chop the leeks (which have been trimmed and well washed to remove any interior dirt; use white and light green parts only), onions, carrots, celery and parsley.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot, add the vegetables and stir-fry to brown lightly.

Add 1 1/2 gallons of cold water.

Also add the marjoram, thyme and bay leaves.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partly covered, for 1 hour.

Strain stock through cheesecloth-lined strainer, cool, and chill or freeze.

If you're just using it as a base in a recipe that calls for "broth", I wouldn't worry about thickening it. If it calls for "stock", stock has some geletin in it. They are fairly interchangable, there's just a slight texture difference. A stock, technically speaking, is made from animal meat and bones. A broth is made from meat or vegetables, and has no bones in it. The bones in meat release some geletin during the cooking process which results in a thicker mouth-feel. If you're trying to achieve that same texture without using animal-products, you can find unflavored kosher geletin in most stores. It's made from kelp. A packet in a big stock pot of soup should be plenty. Another option would be to put some potatoes in the broth, because the starch from the potato will thicken it up a bit.

In vegetable broth, I like to use carrots, onion, celery and mushrooms. I salt it slightly with kosher salt, but other than that I don't season it, because I feel like that makes it more versatile for any recipe.

You might as well cook tofu vegie soup......

1 Tofu, cut into cubes

1 medium size carrot, cut into cubes

3 stocks celery, thinly cut

dried mushrooms, cut into strips

1 beated egg

1 chicken cube

Simply boil 3 cups of water with chicken cube, tofu, carrots, celery and mushrooms for 5 minutes. Then add the egg. Serve.

Yummy.....

Here's another one......

Mash the tofu and mix with 1 beaten egg and 1 grated carrot. Put in a molder and steam in a steamer or deep fry. Serve with mayonnaise or catsup.

go to allrecipes.com! its the best website.

go to allrecipes.com or cooks.com!