Garlic Broth Is The Flavorful Swap Your Vegetable Soups Deserve

Vegetable broth can teem with earthy and herbal richness. More often than not, however, vegetable broth falls short on flavor, which can be challenging should broth be the main ingredient in a recipe — say, in a vegetable soup. Though you could revamp the veggie-forward liquid, we suggest ditching vegetable broth entirely, and instead opting for garlic broth. Sweetly savory with a nutty finish, garlic broth can elevate any batch of vegetable soup tenfold. 

Garlic broth features just one ingredient. Luckily, due to the allium's pungency, the broth is far from bland. In fact, it's packed with umami. Earthy, funky, and somewhat zesty, garlic broth also boasts a buttery decadence along with a sweet caramelization that improve anything from a bowl of cream of mushroom soup to curried carrot soup. All you need to do is substitute the flavorful broth in recipes that traditionally require vegetable broth. 

As for how to prepare garlic broth, it's as simple as simmering cloves in a pot of salted water. For the best result, we recommend using one head of garlic for every 2 quarts of water used, along with ensuring to use peeled and slightly mashed cloves for a maximum diffusion of flavor. To add more dimension, try roasting the cloves or tossing in a few extra aromatics. After 30 minutes of simmering, once the liquid has reduced and the garlic has softened, the broth can be strained and put to use in a vegetable soup.

Garlic broth is perfectly capable of being served on its own thanks to its intense flavor. That said, it makes an especially amazing base for vegetable soups that might lack flavor or umami due to the absence of meat, such as a mock chicken noodle soup made with chickpeas or a meatless minestrone. Similarly, the broth can jazz up a batch of lackluster vegetarian pho, much like it can amplify the savoriness in a vegan miso ramen, or give curried vegetable laksa a funky edge. But, that's not all.

Since garlic teems with umami, the broth can be complimentary to balance flavors when used in any vegetable soup from cheddar and broccoli soup to asparagus vichyssoise to split pea. In fact, its savoriness can highlight an equally woodsy hot and sour soup or a funky French onion soups. Otherwise, the earthiness of garlic broth can create a nice contrast in a honeyed butternut squash soup or sweet root vegetable velouté. Likewise, because of its complexly nuanced profile, the broth even fares well in recipes with vastly different profiles. For instance, a base of garlic broth can contribute a pungent kick to sweet corn chowder, bring a buttery richness to zesty tomato bisque, or underline the nuttiness in a peanut stew.

Regardless of how you use the highly aromatic and deeply flavorful liquid, one thing is for sure: garlic broth will enhance any soup — vegetable and beyond.