Homemade Dry Bouillon

I am obsessed with reducing food waste. Even so more since I am in a risk group: mine is a small urban household where wasting food is both likely and easy. Plus, I run a food-related business. That’s why besides my food waste prevention routines I undertake small projects now and then.

I have been writing a lot about the winter greens that come with thick juicy stalks or root vegetables that are often sold here with the greens (and I’ve gotten pretty good at salvaging them from the greengrocers). Leafy greens don’t keep so well, and it’s hard to use them whole in a single dish. Here is your food waste potential. Or a room for a little project.

Making unassuming vegetable potage is one way to pursue. Making stock is another one, and if you don’t want to go too classic, there are quick and elegant solutions such as this. But then my freezer is filled to the rim, so the ice started building. Did you know that you should never allow the ice build in the freezer as the fridge uses more energy that way? It’s pretty fascinating how many of us use such a mundane device as fridge in a wrong way. But I need to work a bit more to I deserve any right to talk about the proper use of fridge: mine is shamelessly stuffed most of the time.

However I have gotten good at drying. The original idea came from my parents in Russia who are drying everything to both extend the short summer season and to create natural seasonings for cooking and bread baking. Dad has bought a small dehydrator, and anything goes in: tomato, apple, berries, vegetable peels, herbs… If my parents plan a seasoning, they pulse the dried materials in a dedicated coffee grinder and then make mixtures - sweet or salty, for flavor or even for healing (1 tbsp of powdered egg shells + powdered pumpkin skins taken daily for 2 weeks, and my mother’s back pain is gone).

I did my first drying experiment 2 years ago when I dried the vegetable peels abundant at the kitchen of my mother-in-law’s restaurant, especially during the preservation spree in fall. The outcome was a mix of colorful flakes that was my go-to seasonings for soups, pilaf and stews.

So it was time to see what I can do with the winter vegetables. Greens were the most likely candidates. Leeks (both green and white parts), chard, collard greens, dill, parsley, mint, spring onion, celery greens, beet greens. Then I included vegetables, especially that we are using a juicer at the countryside. We are 7 right now, and very morning a large bowl of vegetable pulp gets tossed in the bin. Yes, we do compost at the countryside, but why to compost something that can still go into your food?

Drying vegetable pulp has been a revealing experiment. After drying I ground it in a food processor and then sorted the coarse lumps from the sand-like powder using a fine sieve. While I used the coarse lumps for the dry bouillon seasoning, I consider using the power in baking - it’s something in between the flour and a natural sweetener, which makes me wonder how it’s going to act in the baking recipes.

I have been trying a few different ways of drying too. I don’t have a dehydrator, so I dried in the oven. I died each batch for 1 hour at 100C/210F and then just left it on the counter (I have plenty of space) for 2-3 days to let the herbs and vegetables dry completely. With herbs I could rule out the oven completely: chopping finely and leaving on the counter for a few days suffice. Also, I left a few whole stems to dry on the counter and eventually they did, but then they turned yellow showing the natural fading process that you can witness in autumn when green grass turns golden. So chopping the greens works better to preserve the original color.

I flaked the dried greens and herbs rubbing them between my fingers (I did not want a powder) and then combined with the ground dried vegetable pulp. A generous amount of sea salt and your favorite spices can complete the affair (easily turning this homemade dry bouillon into a unique DIY present), but I choose to keep it unseasoned for the wider range of uses.

Homemade Dry Bouillon

I originally used vegetable pulp from the juicer, but I’ve adjusted the recipe below to “from the scratch” assuming that not everyone prepares fresh juices at home. If you have a large food processor you can use it to grind the greens and vegetables: I chop them greens instead as I find it quicker, plus I have no patience to wash all the intricate parts of the food processor.

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

3 large leeks (green and white parts)
500 g beet greens (leaves and stalks)
500 g chard (leaves and stalks)
300 g collard green (leaves + stalks)
200 g celery (including the curly leaves)
200 g horseradish stalks (including leaves)
4 large carrots
2 medium beets
2 large apples
1 medium celery root (celeriac)
200 g parsley, including stalks
200 g dill, including stalks

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 100C/210F.

Dry greens: Wash, spin and finely chop all the leaves, stalks and stems (leeks, beet greens, chard, collard greens, celery and horseradish stalks). You will need 4 (or less if you work in batches) large trays lined with the parchment paper. Divide all the chopped greens among the four trays and dry for about 1 hour. Then place on the counter and let dry for 2-3 days.

Dry vegetables: Peel or simply thoroughly wash the vegetables and grate them coarsely. Divide between 2 large trays lined with the parchment paper and dry at 100C/ 210F for 1.5 hours. Then leave on the counter for 2-3 days to dry completely.

Dry herbs: Chop the parsley and dill finely, place on the trays lined with the parchment paper and leave on the counter for 2-3 days.

Make dry bouillon: With your fingertips smash the dry green and herbs into the coarse flakes. Grind the dry vegetables in the food processor until the desired coarseness. Combine the dry greens, herbs and vegetables and transfer to an air-tight container. When using, add 1 tbsp per 4 servings of soup or stew: you should the dry bouillon as soon as you pour in the water to let the dry greens and vegetables steep and the flavors infuse properly.