Get the Salt Out (26 page)

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Good stock
can make the difference between extraordinarily tasty soup and mediocre soup. Unfortunately, most stock used in today’s cooking is only given flavor with outrageous amounts of refined salt. To avoid all that salt—as well as the MSG so common in commercial stock—make your own. Here’s an idea for an easy-to-prepare, savory stock based simply on herbs. It comes from George R. Schwartz, author of
In Bad Taste: The MSG Syndrome. One Salt Shaker.

Place all the ingredients in a soup pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Pass through a fine strainer and cool. Refrigerate or freeze.
Makes 1 quart.

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Save the peels and trimmings from vegetables you chop during the week
and use them to make one-of-a-kind vegetable stock. Those vegetable peelings may be “leftovers,” but the broth they can produce is first-rate. Be sure to include the skins of vegetables like onions in the stock. These little-used parts of vegetables are secrets for imparting extra flavor without the salt. To make vegetable stock, add to a soup pot whatever vegetable odds and ends that you have (for example, well-washed celery leaves, onion skins, carrot trimmings, cauliflower leaves, broccoli stalks, etc.). Add at least twice as much water as vegetable pieces, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for an hour. Strain the stock through a triple-mesh strainer and press the vegetables to release their juices. Cool and refrigerate or separate into individual containers and freeze. Yield will vary based on the amount of vegetables and water added.
One Salt Shaker.

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Add ¼ to ½ cup dry white wine and one bouquet garni to the stock pot for extra flavor.
To make a bouquet garni, combine herbs like bay leaf, a few sprigs of parsley, and a sprig of thyme and wrap them in a tied cheesecloth or put them in a metal tea ball. Add to your stock and simmer.
One Salt Shaker.

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Add garlic to your stock or, better yet, make Garlic Broth
to use as a fabulous base for bean or vegetable soups. Garlic, of course, packs a powerful flavoring punch and is well known for its ability to lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, enhance the immune system, and ward off bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. The following recipe for Garlic Broth was developed by Holly Sollars. By using this broth in cooking, you have not only an enjoyable way of using less salt but also a handy way of receiving garlic’s remarkable medicinal benefits.
One Salt Shaker.

Combine all the ingredients with 16 cups of water in a large pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about an hour. Pour the stock through a strainer into a heat-resistant container. Press as much liquid from the vegetables as possible. Cool the stock, then refrigerate or freeze.
Makes approximately 1 gallon.

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If you’re a real garlic lover,
add some additional garlic to broth at the last minute. For example, to give the above recipe for Garlic Broth an even richer garlic flavor, take another half a head of garlic and peel and slice the cloves. Sauté the sliced cloves in one tablespoon of olive oil for three to four minutes, then mix it into the broth. Allow the broth to cool as directed.
One Salt Shaker.

BONUS TIP:
After having Garlic Broth or anything else made with garlic, chew on a sprig of fresh, chlorophyll-rich parsley to freshen your breath naturally.

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To make a rich meat broth without the salt,
brown beef, veal, or lamb bones in a 400-degree oven for an hour before transferring them to a soup pot and adding water to simmer them. This process seems to allow more of the rich meat flavor to come through in the broth. Cook the broth for
two to three hours or more. (Longer cooking produces a more flavorful stock. If enough water is used, the stock can be simmered for as long as eight hours.) When the broth has reduced enough, strain it, cool, and refrigerate or freeze.
One Salt Shaker.