Vegetable stock forms the basis of a good soup.  Soups are an important component of most cuisines and certainly Eastern European cooking is no exception. We will explore several soups, and whenever possible I like to start with a homemade stock. Of course, you can make a delicious and quick soup using a store-bought stock or broth. For this reason, I separate basic stock recipes from soups in case you want to put one together quickly using this convenient option.   

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Many of the authentic recipes for Eastern European soups I’ve come across begin with making some sort of stock at the outset (vegetable, beef, chicken, etc.). In my experience you can always substitute a vegetable stock for any of the others, though you might not want to make other substitutions–especially if you want a purely vegetarian or even vegan soup, you wouldn’t want to replace a vegetable stock with a meat-based one. And you might not want a chicken soup made with beef stock and so on.

This vegetable stock recipe serves as the basis for several soup recipes to come, including borscht and shchi (Russian cabbage soup), among others. I even use it as a basis for making a beef or chicken stock. You can pull a quart or two of this out of your freezer, add meat and bones and additional water to transform it into a meat stock. The key ingredient in this stock, common to many authentic stock recipes you may encounter, is celery root or celeriac. It’s key because it imparts the most pronounced flavor. But the “secret” ingredient is parsley root.

Parsley root is a less common vegetable in most produce markets. It looks like a large parsnip or a giant white carrot and is typically sold with parsley greens still attached. I consider that a bonus because you can use this parsley in your cooking and of course in your stock. When you get the parsley root home from the market, immediately trim the greens from the root, put them in a tall glass of water, and then put them in the fridge to keep fresh. (I always cover the bouquet with the produce bag I brought the vegetables home in. This helps retain moisture in the herbs.)

The only thing really secret about this ingredient is that it is virtually unknown to most casual cooks. It’s not usual to find it in recipes for stock in most Western cuisine cookbooks. But it’s a nearly ubiquitous ingredient in Eastern European stock recipes–Russian and Ukrainian at least. It keeps pretty well in the crisper, and because you’re not going to eat the flesh, don’t worry too much if it’s been around a while before using. Use it only to impart flavor to your stock; then discard it.

Celery root on the other hand serves a dual purpose, like carrots, celery, or potatoes, often included in both stock recipes and the resulting soups. I buy a big enough celery root to use in my stock, and still have some for slicing to put in the soup.

Making vegetable stock is a simple process, not very labor intensive and most of the time is hands off. Start by roughly chopping the vegetables into very large pieces. I typically never slice them smaller than quartering any given vegetable. The more surface area there is, the more flavor the vegetable imparts. But don’t chop the pieces so small that they disintegrate and muddy the stock, which should be clear and golden. I don’t even bother peeling vegetables except to get any unpleasant brown or dirty spots off of them. You can even leave the onion skins on if you like. Discard all the vegetables after cooking. Don’t feel too bad about that–you’ll have extracted all the flavor out of them and the resulting mushy things aren’t very appealing anyway.

Ingredients for 3-4 quarts vegetable stock

1-2 large carrots, quartered
1 medium onion, quartered
2 ribs celery including leaves, cut in 3-4 pieces each
1 parsley root, quartered
1 medium or half large (10-12 oz.) celery root, quartered
1 Tbsp black peppercorns, whole
1 bunch fresh parsley (5-6 sprigs)

Place all ingredients in 6 or 8 quart stock pot. Add 4 to 4½ quarts of water to cover vegetables. Bring water to a boil, and then lower heat to simmer partially covered for at least an hour. If the water evaporates so much that the vegetables are no longer submerged, add just enough water to cover them. But resist the temptation to keep adding water to the pot as it reduces as a more concentrated stock requires less storage space. You can always dilute it again, if necessary, when you use it in your soup or other recipes.

Let the stock cool on the stovetop before straining out the vegetables. Put a colander over a large bowl; pour contents of the stock pot into the colander. Tilt the colander, or lightly press the vegetables with a wooden spoon to get all the liquid into the bowl. Pour into the storage containers in quart-sized increments (for freezer or fridge depending how soon you plan to use it). This recipe yields 3 to 4 quarts of stock.