10 Best Recipes with Vegetable Broth (Perfect for Leftovers)
Do you have a half-empty carton of veggie broth in your fridge, or did you make too much homemade vegetable broth? Perhaps you went nuts on the last 25%-off sale. In any case, these 10 recipes with vegetable broth will ensure your broth gets used in the most delicious and satisfying ways.
Among our favorites (which are all vegan-friendly or vegetarian recipes) are the one-pot garlic fettuccine, authentic mapo tofu, sweet potato chowder, and quinoa vegetable casserole. Which ones will you make?
Vegetable Couscous Salad – by Sugar and Charm
Veggie-based salads have criteria to meet in order to be satisfying (and worth making again). What are the goods? Lots of different textures and flavors, an addictive dressing, plus they should be hearty and filling so you’re not hungry again in an hour. This vegetable couscous salad satisfies the criteria one hundred percent.
Using vegetable broth to cook the couscous gives it a leg-up in flavor, while veggies like scallions, zucchini, corn, and garbanzo beans add a variety of textures. The dressing is simple, easy, and fresh. Just blend lemon juice, olive oil, curry, cumin, salt, and pepper. That’s it!
This vegetable couscous salad is one of our favorite side dishes, but it could easily be a main. To make it even more filling, we suggest adding some black or green olives and crumbling goat cheese or feta on top. Any other roasted vegetables, such as sweet potato, asparagus, or squash, would also be welcome additions.
Creamy Vegetable Risotto – by Minimalist Baker
It is hard to imagine a plant-based risotto being as comforting and delicious without butter and parmesan cheese, but this vegan risotto recipe is somehow just as flavorful, creamy, and dreamy. With oil instead of butter, it’s also far better for you.
The only ingredient you may need to source ahead of time at a health food store is the vegan parmesan cheese. Otherwise, the ingredients list is pretty simple and requires only seven other items: vegetable broth, water, asparagus, arborio rice, red bell pepper, shallots, and dry white wine.
With eight ingredients and 30 minutes total time, this is a perfect option for a weeknight dinner—or when you have a sudden comfort-food craving but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen.
Vegetarian Mapo Tofu – by Omnivores Cookbook
As one of the most popular and beloved dishes of the Sichuan province in China, many mapo tofu recipes use bone broth, beef broth, ground beef, and/or pork. However, it’s easy to modify this recipe to make it entirely plant-based.
Simply use vegetable broth instead of the bone broth and replace the pork or beef with mushrooms. With the same signature aromatics, it’s just as darn delicious.
If you’ve never heard of mapo tofu, it’s fragrant, savory, and spicy. The signature ingredient in this dish is the Sichuan peppercorn. It’s also called a numbing pepper because it gives your tongue a tingly, numbing sensation when you eat it.
To make the mapo tofu spice mix, you’ll need a few other special ingredients to nail the authentic Chinese flavor: spicy fermented bean paste, fermented black beans, hot chili oil, and chili flakes. You can find all of these ingredients at your local Asian supermarket, including the Sichuan peppercorns.
Since these Asian sauces aren’t used in everyday American cooking, if you’re worried about having them collect dust and take up space in your cupboard, here are a bunch of different ways you can use them.
With plenty of other aromatics like ginger, garlic, onion, and green onion, there is no shortage of flavor in this recipe. You can serve it on white rice or eat it as is.
Creamy Turnip Potato Soup – by Babaganosh
This super creamy vegan potato turnip soup is one of those recipes that proves less really can be more in the kitchen.
All you need for this recipe are cooked turnips, potatoes, onion, olive oil, vegetable broth or vegetable stock, ground nutmeg, and fresh herbs of your choice to garnish. (Chives, a few sprigs of cilantro, or some sliced green onion sound nice.)
This soup is creamy enough to look like it’s made with some type of cream or plant milk, but it gets its velvety texture just from puréeing cooked turnips and potatoes. We’re taking notes for future creamy-but-hold-the-cream soup recipes!
Vegan Tomato Soup – by Nora Cooks
Whether you’re cooking for a vegan, vegetarian, or a meat-eater, you can never go wrong with a classic tomato soup recipe. It’s creamy, silky, comforting, and nourishing. Tomato soup is the ultimate pairing for a crisp fall or winter day.
This vegan tomato soup is made from scratch with a coconut milk or cashew base, canned crushed tomatoes, vegetable broth, sweet onion, olive oil, and an optional pinch of sugar. Can it get easier than that?
This tomato soup recipe also includes a nut-free option and instructions on how to make it in an instant pot.
Quick Quinoa and Veggie Casserole – Cookspiration
There is never a bad time to whip up a casserole, is there? It’s also one of the easiest recipes to make with vegetable broth and the best way to clean out your fridge.
This casserole is gluten-free and can be made 100% vegan by substituting vegan cheese for the dairy cheese (otherwise, the original recipe is lacto-vegetarian friendly).
This casserole is hearty, with quinoa (a complete protein), leeks, corn, peppers, and broccoli. It’s flavored with Italian seasoning, vegetable broth, parsley, and garlic. You can make easy swaps here. If you don’t have broccoli, use cauliflower or squash. No corn? Try peas instead.
White Bean Fennel Soup – Taste of Home
Sometimes you’re just in the mood for a quick, hearty, low-maintenance vegetable soup. But rather than turn to canned minestrone again, try this white bean and fennel soup instead.
Although it sounds sophisticated (and it kind of is), the ingredients list is surprisingly simple, and there are only two steps required. Essentially, you just throw everything in a pot except the spinach, which you add at the end, and simmer for 30 minutes.
As far as the ingredients list goes, all you need is vegetable broth, cannellini beans, dried thyme (we recommend fresh thyme if you have it because it has more flavor), spinach, diced tomato, fennel, onion, and a bay leaf. Easy, satisfying, delicious.
Vegan Sweet Potato Chowder – The Kitchn
While we’re on a roll with simple and delicious soup recipes, we couldn’t not include this vegan sweet potato chowder. Velvety smooth and perfectly spiced with paprika, sage, and coriander, this is a sweet potato recipe we can almost guarantee you’ll make over and over again.
Aside from the sweet potato and spices (which make up nearly half of the ingredients list), all you need are celery stalks, yellow onion, garlic, vegetable broth, and olive oil.
Vegan Shiitake Mushroom Pho – by Veganosity
This vegan shiitake mushroom pho recipe is as hearty, delicious, and satisfying as a traditional beef pho recipe. Plus, it’s super healthy.
Caramelized leeks give the vegetable broth it’s “X factor” flavor, while lime juice, star anise, ginger, bay leaves, cinnamon, and tamari deepen the flavor. Drooling?
Serve it with rice noodles, carrots, cilantro, and heaps of basil, and you will see this shiitake mushroom pho is 10/10 restaurant quality. If you wanted to make it even more filling, you could also try adding broccoli and/or tofu.
One-Pot Creamy Garlic Pasta – by Yup It’s Vegan
We saved the best for last (at least, if you’re a pasta lover). This is one heck of a way to use up your leftover vegetable broth.
This creamy garlic pasta tastes similar to a fettuccine alfredo and uses non-dairy milk and vegetable broth for the pasta sauce along with a slew of fragrant aromatics. Garlic cloves, shallots, black pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, and parsley create a truly addictive flavor. As a one-pot meal, you’ll cook the fettuccine noodles right in with the sauce, so you also save on kitchen clean-up.
