The best vegetable stock to use in any recipe is one that is made from scratch. When you prepare a stock with real, whole-foods, you can control the quality of ingredients and the level of sodium. You can concentrate the flavors in the stock as you like, and choose which ingredients and aromatics you want to use to build flavor.

Store bought stocks are convenient but often contain low-quality ingredients, additives, high amounts of sodium and, sometimes, monosodium glutamate (MSG).

If you don’t have any vegetable stock on hand and need to purchase ready-made stock, read the labels. You should be able to find higher quality stocks that contain organic ingredients, are made from whole foods, are lower in sodium and do not contain MSG. These less than desired stock and broth concentrates usually come in the form of powders or concentrated liquids.

Here’s a recipe for fresh vegetable stock that can be used in a number of recipes from this point forward in the course.