Stock-less stew

August 7, 2007 5:02 PM

How can I thicken/season a vegetable stew without resorting to mystery meat ingredients?

Most recipes I've seen demand the use of stock or boullion. I'm not averse to using plain cuts of meat, but a better idea would be stews which use no meat at all. Any ideas?

posted by rolypolyman to food & drink (32 comments total)

Cornflower works for gravy - might it do the job?
posted by prentiz at 5:06 PM on August 7, 2007

There's this recipe that I posted before (and yes, it was much easier to search for the link then to type the thing in again).

I believe okra may also thicken stew, if you want to try that.
posted by dilettante at 5:07 PM on August 7, 2007

TVP is the best way to add some chewy to a stew. For a thicker broth try a starch like flour or corn starch. Dissolve it in cold milk or water before adding it to the stew to prevent lumpage.
posted by Toekneesan at 5:09 PM on August 7, 2007

I assume you mean thicken as in make it taste thicker, not actually thicker like gravy. If you don't want to use meat stock, why not just use vegetable stock? You can make your own with a lot of mushrooms (for that thick taste), garlic, onions, carrots, etc. You can also buy mushroom or vegetable bullion. If you decide to use meat, you want bones for a thicker taste, not meat itself.
posted by ssg at 5:10 PM on August 7, 2007

Flour
Cornstarch
Filé
Cream
Potatoes

Any of these, used properly, will thicken a stew or soup.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:14 PM on August 7, 2007

Lentils! The heartiest-tasting meatless stews I've had have contained lots of lentils, along with chunks of carrot, potato, mushrooms, celery, etc.

As Thorzdad said, potatoes are a great way to physically thicken a stew, and they don't taste out of place; after all, potatoes belong in a stew.

I can't imagine a really hearty vegetable stew not having both lentils and potatoes.
posted by musicinmybrain at 5:16 PM on August 7, 2007

It sounds like you're asking two completely separate things. To thicken is not the same thing as to season. To thicken you can use cornstarch, flour, potato flakes, etc. (none of the traditional thickening methods require meat). Now, as far as stock/boullion, vegetable stock is a very tasty substitute for beef or chicken stock. If you don't want to make your own, many companies make a canned version (I like Swanson).
posted by amyms at 5:16 PM on August 7, 2007

Seconding vegetable stock, especially including mushrooms and/or caramelized onions. Beans or lentils are also good additions for a richer flavor in vegetable stews. If you don't want to make stock, marmite is an easy boullion substitute.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:19 PM on August 7, 2007

What about pureeing some of the vegetables and leaving others whole?
posted by Addlepated at 5:20 PM on August 7, 2007

Veggie stock or boullion, check the carrot content... some are quite carroty. My hippie chow shop has faux chicken boullion in bulk and that's the best stuff for my superb fake chicken pot pie and matzo ball soup.

Okra lends a snotty thickness appropriate for gumbo and mulligatawny. Any root veggies or tubers cooked to death will thicken your soup but not add great amounts of savory flavor.

Barley, Rice or other grains share their starch with the broth. Or hey, dumplings, gnocchi or pasta?

Cornstarch or tapioca flour are good cheats but too much tastes, well, starchy. Mix with water first and add a little at a time. It doesn't thicken immediately.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:27 PM on August 7, 2007

I use nutritional yeast -- it's used in a lot in vegetarian/vegan cooking to add a savory flavor and hearty texture in the absence of meat. As an added bonus, it's full of B vitamins and other healthy compounds.
posted by eiramazile at 5:32 PM on August 7, 2007

I like Addlepated's suggestion -- take some of the veggies out, puree them in the blender or food processor, and return the puree to the stew.
posted by briank at 5:34 PM on August 7, 2007

Make a roux?

Don't be thrown off by it's French or Cajun-ness. It's very useful.
posted by snsranch at 5:35 PM on August 7, 2007

Add MSG (or, alternately, natural sources of MSG like tomatoes, mushrooms, or seaweed). This will increase the umami flavor that you're most certainly lacking.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 5:36 PM on August 7, 2007

From Mr. Pearlybob:

If you want to make the soup thicker (which meat doesn't do anyway) you can resort to starch thickeners (corn starch or flour). Corn Starch makes a gelatinus thickness, almost like Jello. It's pretty effective and easy, mix with cold water and dump in. When it boils it will thicken. Put it in when the soup is almost done to taste. Flour makes more of an opaque thickness like good gravy, and also adds a taste element. Make sure you cook it long enough to get the floury taste out.

Potatoes, carrots, and some beans break down when cooked and the starch that comes from them thickens the broth. Think of good Irish Stew, which when done properly and cooked long and slow is really thick without added thickeners.

Some recipes use vegetables to thicken by design and require that you puree the veggies. Many Beer Cheese Soup recipes have you cook potatos, carrots, and celery to make a stock, then take the veggies and puree them in the blender. The puree is added back to make a great thick soup.

As far as flavoring, vegetable or mushroom stock is a great option. There are also non-meat options like smoke flavoring that can add to it.
posted by pearlybob at 5:41 PM on August 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

It won't make your soups thicker (canned or cartoned chicken stock won't either) but: Mario Batali often speaks of the simple use of water in soups to allow the taste of the fresh vegetables to stand out. See, for example, his recipes for Tomato Bread Soup and Farro Soup.
posted by david1230 at 5:42 PM on August 7, 2007

I'll second snsranch's suggestion - I use roux to thicken soups and sauces when I can't use animal products (vegitarian girlfriend). Or, if I'm feeling really lazy, I'll just use a tablespoon of all-purpose flour or cornstarch as Thorzdad suggests. A little goes a long way. Sprincle it in slowly and stir thouroughly or you'll get lumps.
posted by lekvar at 5:47 PM on August 7, 2007

Try brunoise and a vegetarian umami source.

1) Finely dice (brunoise) some aromatic vegetables (any or all of onions, leeks, celery, carrots, peppers) and sweat them in moderately hot oil.

2) When they are softened, add as much garlic as you like, but only cook it for a minute or so until it smells good.

3) Add 2-3 tablespoons of umami (any or all of tomato paste, finely chopped black olives, olive paste, fresh mushrooms, dried mushrooms that have been soaked and squeezed dry, etc.). Stir and cook over gentle heat for a few minutes.

4) Add stock/juice/water, other veggies, lentils and anything else you want in your stew and cook slowly until done. Use just enough liquid to barely cover your ingredients. You may choose to lightly puree some of the stew at the end, but even without this, you should get something thick and flavourful.
posted by maudlin at 5:50 PM on August 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

I find that tomatoes (canned, usually) help, as do mushrooms.

Sometimes cooking it in a crockpot for a long time seems to help create a different, more stew-y flavor as well. (I never use meat in stews.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 5:57 PM on August 7, 2007

If you want to make the soup thicker (which meat doesn't do anyway)...

Actually, meat does do so. Or some meat does. Stewing meat will contain connective tissues with lots of collagen which dissolve during the stewing process and become gelatin. That results in a thicker, richer mouth-feel even when hot. That same gelatin is why cold consomme is jelly-like: it's meat Jello.

Unfortunately, if you're a true vegan, gelatin is not a solution because commercial gelatin is created by processing beef and pork bones. (Pork hides are also used.)

However, agar and pectin are derived from plant sources and may serve the same function. (Pectin is the difference between fruit juice and jelly.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:01 PM on August 7, 2007

I'll second pureeing some of the veggies, using potatoes, adding corn starch or flour (mixed in water first, as Toekneesan notes above), cream or cheese (cooked slowly). I've used all those as thickeners and they work great.

Any good vegetarian cookbook will have loads of good recipes for great-tasting soups and stews.
posted by mediareport at 6:29 PM on August 7, 2007

True Steven C. Den Beste, but since the OP wanted veg. options, I was avoiding the path of rendering down marrow or the collagen release process. Agar and pectin can be used to thicken but are much more tempermental to deal with than good old corn starch and flour. Mr. PB.
posted by pearlybob at 6:30 PM on August 7, 2007

To predictably thicken stews and meat or fat based sauces with starch thickening agents, you need to understand that what you're doing is creating a colloidal suspension; basically, the best and smoothest sauces and gravies rely on a simple set of techniques, which generally begin with adding a small amount of thickening agent to the reduced fat of a dish, while stirring to fully and evenly disperse the thickener in suspension in the fat (during this phase, very little or no visible thickening occurs), followed by the addition of water, wine, or other polar liquid, which is absorbed by the suspended thickener particles, creating a predictable, smooth degree of thickening, directly proportional to the amounts of thickener and water used.

Typically, the finer the particle size of the thickener, the smoother and less obvious the addition of thickener will be in the final dish, the less thickener will be needed, and the more controllable the end viscosity. For this reason, thickeners like cornstarch are generally preferred over wheat flour or corn meal, because corn starch particles are smaller than wheat flour particles.

In most cases, thickeners are added in volumes of from 1/4 to equal amounts of the fat available. If you have 4 tablespoons of fat, and wish a basic, clear thin gravy, you can begin by dissolving 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in the fat over low heat, by vigorous stirring. Thereafter, water, milk, wine or other polar liquid can be added to the mixture in the proportion of between 1 cup to 1 quart of water per tablespoon of thickener, depending on the desired end thickness. Browned bits of meat, sugars and caramels, bouillon, or other flavoring agents in the fat, before the polar fluid is added, contribute to the color and flavor of the final sauce. If milk is used as all or part of the polar liquid added, the sauce or gravy will be opaque due to the presence of milk proteins, and the resultant gravy or sauce will be thicker than for a purely polar liquid like water, by the degree to which the milk proteins are present in the added liquid. In a pint of added liquid, 2 or 3 ounces of full fat milk are generally enough to make a recognizable "cream" style gravy.

So, for a thin, clear pan gravy, you might start with 3 or 4 tablespoons of fat in the skillet, to which you add a tablespoon of cornstarch, followed by up to a quart of water, or a mixture of water and milk, or water and wine, added slowly, and stirred well over continued low heat, until the desired end consistency is achieved. Thickening occurs when the grains of the thickening agent swell when absorbing the water or other polar fluid. The influence of low heat on the thickening process is considerable, as the heat supplies much of the energy needed for the absorption of the polar fluid by the thickener particles. But, for the same reason, there is a generally some "overhang" effect on thickening, as a gravy or sauce will continue to thicken slightly after heat is removed, simply because it contains enough residual heat to continue the process. This is of little matter, however, as the thickened sauce can be further thinned a bit with the addition of small amounts of polar fluid, which will also reduce the temperature of the sauce.

There is a limit to the thickening process where the amount of thickener used has absorbed all the water or other polar fluid it can, chemically. Beyond this point, the addition of more water will rapidly thin the mixture, as the thickener can no longer smoothly absorb additional polar fluid.

It should be noted that it will be difficult to predictably add thickener to the mixture, once polar fluid is present. The thickener is added to the fat before the polar fluid is introduced, so that the fat can smooth coat the thickener's particles, before those particles are swelled in the presence of the polar fluid. Adding additional thickener to a gravy already somewhat thickened is difficult, simply because it is difficult to evenly coat the new thickener particles in fat molecules, in the presence of warm polar fluid. Therefore, if a gravy has been thinned too much, as in trying to hold it over the course of a long dining service, it is better to reheat the gravy a bit, hoping to stimulate additional thickening, than to try adding more thickener. In extreme cases, making a small amount of fresh gravy or sauce, and mixing it into the older mixture, will yield a better final product, and is a useful technique when reconstituting previously refrigerated gravy or sauce. This is also a very useful technique for thickening a larger pot of stew, where the presence of considerable polar cooking liquid makes the direct addition of thickener a chancy business; instead, make a small amount of thick simple gravy in separate skillet, using nothing more than a tablespoon or two of butter and a tablespoon of flour, with a 1/2 cup of water to start, and add that slowly to the stew, to achieve desired final thickness.
posted by paulsc at 6:33 PM on August 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

season a vegetable stew

The core problem sounds like you're not getting enough flavor in your stew. While the above commenters have nice suggestions on what can be added, I think you should focus on why you're not getting proper flavor.

I recommend reviewing the below before adding flavoring agents.

1. Ingredient quality -- are you using fresh and seasonal vegetables? Good food starts with good ingredients. This is especially important when it comes to non-meat dishes. Vegetables in season have more flavor and are cheaper. Summer squash and zucchini is fantastic right now. If you can buy it from a local source, that's even better as it will be naturally ripe instead of being induced into ripening. Here's a seasonal vegetables chart.

2. Caramelize the vegetables -- are you sauteing the vegetables enough before adding other ingredients and water? For a stew you want to first saute the basics until they're golden but not burned. Onions, carrots, and celery should be sauteed first. Then add your other vegetables and make sure they get some color. Chopping the vegetables into smaller chunks will also ensure they get more color and flavor. Add some salt early on to make sure you draw out the flavor and moisture. Every vegetable should have a well-developed flavor before you add the liquids.

3. Adjust the balance -- is there good balance in the flavor? This is one of the harder cooking concepts to learn. A proper stew should have a balance of salty, sweet, and sour (acidity). Mind you, it should never actually taste strongly of salty, sweet or sour but having just a touch of each will enhance the overall taste. Many times, just adding a bit of lemon juice, sugar, or tomato paste is enough to really kick up a stew and make all the flavors balance out. Taste, adjust, taste, adjust, taste, adjust.

4. Herbs -- thyme and bay leaves add wonderful flavor in stews and a lot of home cooks overlook them. The thyme can be added while sauteing while the bay leaf should be added just before the liquid (to avoid crumbling it, you'll need to remove it before serving). Fresh herbs added at the end of cooking also add fresh flavor and aroma to the stew.
posted by junesix at 6:35 PM on August 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

Much to my surprise, I'm 2nding nutritional yeast. Never thought I'd like the stuff, and I sneer at anybody trying to pawn it off as a cheese substitute, but it does do nice things to veg stews.

lentils, along with chunks of carrot, potato, mushrooms, celery, etc

I had this the other night, with 'etc' being a couple of chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock cubes. Quite tasty, quite thick.

Potato juice, even in very small quantities, thickens like mad. Sort of disgustingly if you add even a drop too much. But an interesting experiment at worst if you have a juicer.
posted by kmennie at 6:38 PM on August 7, 2007

I don't think anyone's mentioned miso — it's another good source of "meaty" (umami/glutamate) flavor in broths. Add it at the end of cooking, mixed to dissolve in a little hot water, and avoid boiling it. Bear in mind that it'll also add a lot of salt.

If you're not a vegetarian — it sounds like you're just interested in exploring the world beyond beef broth — try mashing up and sauteeing a few anchovy fillets along with your onions/carrots/whatever. Again, they'll add meaty flavor and salt. You can cut down on the salt by washing or even soaking them first.

Chocolate doesn't taste meaty, necessarily, but it's got a rich and "dark" flavor that vegetarian cooking often lacks. It's the secret ingredient in a lot of good vegan chilli.

I've also seen chopped raisins used in vegan chilli — they add tannins, which can give stew "body" the same way they do for wine. I suppose other tannin sources (tea? uh, oak chips?) might be used for the same effect.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:38 PM on August 7, 2007

thicken: pureed veggies or beans (personally I dislike starch/roux options which are tasteless and, well, starchy), or just more veggies/beans/noodles to the pot.

flavour: use fresh ingredients, saute veggies, and real veggie (or meat) soup stock (not consomme, bouillon, powder, cubes etc.), garlic sauteed with veggies, sauteed onion in the stock

meatless meat: mushrooms, miso, tvp, a bit of unsweetened cocoa/chocolate if you're emulating beefiness

season: herbs, add a bit of fresh just before serving, dehydrated and then ground veggies are an excellent addition (tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini), a bit of salt (test before serving).
posted by kch at 6:59 PM on August 7, 2007

Arrow root
posted by hortense at 9:26 PM on August 7, 2007

If you want to use some sort of bean to thicken stews you should note that they can require a lot more cooking than the other ingredients.

I personally don't like quickly cooked beans because of their grainy texture. But if you cook them long enough all of the grains will pop.

One thing I often have in my freezer is long-cooked thick plain split-pea soup base (made with peas, carrots, onions, celery and bay). Everything has been forced through a food mill and it just has a uniform smooth texture.

I often make "real soup" from this base by adding some fresh sauted vegetable and/or fruit dice and seasonings. I could easily see adding some to any stew to add depth and body.

Miso while not having a grainy texture probably has too much salt to add more than a little.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 10:44 PM on August 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Get an acorn squash, split and seed it, and microwave it face down in an inch of water for eight minutes.

While those minutes pass, put a tablespoon of oil or butter in a medium-hot pan, and caramelize some diced or minced onion and garlic.

When the microwave dings, remove, drain, and pat dry your squash. Roast it face up under the broiler on a cookie sheet with a bit of the onion-oil mixture, some allspice, some cayenne, and a little brown sugar in its dent.

When it looks bubbly good, take it out. Spoon it into your stew, along with the rest of the cooked onion. It will disintegrate in a golden beautiful way as the stew cooks.

This will thicken your stew AND flavourize it, in a way suitable for both vegetarians and the gluten averse. Plus, omnivores like it too.
posted by Sallyfur at 12:46 AM on August 8, 2007

To thicken a stew, easiest cheat ever - instant mashed potato powder, just a little bit, will do the trick.

To make your stew more substantial - lentils, chunks of butternut squash, carrots, in fact any root vegetables that don't fall apart when cooked.
posted by essexjan at 2:05 AM on August 8, 2007

Much easier than the blender suggestion: Invest in a immersion (aka stick) blender (they start at about $20). Stick it in your stew, hit the button until the texture looks like what you want. This way you don't have to transport hot stew bits to and from the blender.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 6:44 AM on August 8, 2007