Anyone who has ever read the ingredient list on a bought stock cube will think twice about adding it to every soup. Yeast extract, maltodextrin, flavourings, often palm oil, and monosodium glutamate hiding under its many aliases. We have been making our own vegetable stock powder for years, and since then the pot of bought cubes has not featured in our cupboard.
The principle is simple and old. Fresh vegetables are finely chopped in the Thermomix®, mixed with salt, dried in the oven, and then blended to a powder one more time. Exactly in that order. The salt does two jobs at once: it preserves the vegetables and becomes our seasoning base. Anyone who makes soups, stews, or sauces now has a staple in their cupboard that contains not a single questionable ingredient.
Vegetable Stock Powder with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 9 ✓
- 10 g dried tomatoes
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 2 onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 100 g leek
- 200 g celeriac
- 200 g carrot
- 60 g salt
- 2 tsp pepper
Instructions 0 / 5
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1
Preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 80°C fan and line a baking tray with baking paper.
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2
Chop the tomatoes.
Place the tomatoes in the mixing bowl and chop for 10 sec / speed 10.
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3
Chop the vegetables.
Wash the parsley, shake dry, add to the mixing bowl along with the remaining ingredients, chop for 15 sec / speed 5, push down with the spatula and repeat.
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4
Dry the vegetable mixture.
Spread the vegetable mixture on the baking tray and dry on the middle shelf for about 6 hours. Open the oven door briefly once an hour to let moisture escape.
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5
Fill the jar.
Place the vegetable mixture in the mixing bowl and pulverise for 15 sec / speed 10. Fill the vegetable stock powder into a screw-top jar and store in a cool, dry, dark place.
Nutrition per serving
Why the salt is about preservation, not flavour
In this recipe we use 60 g of salt to roughly 510 g of fresh vegetables plus 10 g of dried tomatoes. That sounds like a lot, but it is a deliberate choice. Salt draws moisture out of the vegetables, inhibits micro-organisms, and means the powder keeps well for a long time. If you drastically reduce the salt, you will either end up with mould or you will have to store the powder permanently in the freezer. Neither option appeals to us.
The second consequence of this amount of salt: a soup made with it needs no additional seasoning. The rule of thumb from our kitchen is one level teaspoon of powder to 500 ml of water for a robust stock. Anyone who prefers it milder uses half a teaspoon and adjusts at the end. Worth knowing: this is a seasoning powder, not a direct substitute for a yeast-extract-laden stock cube. The flavour is cleaner, more vegetal, less artificially rounded. That is exactly why we make it.
Which vegetables must go in, and which are optional
The backbone is carrots (200 g), celeriac (200 g), leek (100 g), onions (2 pieces), garlic cloves (2 pieces), and half a bunch of parsley. Add 10 g of dried tomatoes as the umami carrier and 2 tsp of pepper. After many attempts this combination is our standard, because it produces a balanced stock: carrot and celeriac bring sweetness and depth, leek and onion provide the classic soup base, garlic adds a quiet punch in the background, and parsley contributes freshness. The dried tomatoes are the real trick. They supply the umami that industrial stock powder gets from yeast extract, but genuinely.
If you dislike celeriac or do not have any in the house, replace it with parsnip or parsley root. If you want more sweetness, add 50 g of fennel. Lovage (fresh or dried, 5 g is enough) gives the powder an almost Maggi-like depth without any Maggi in it. What we never add: fresh tomatoes (too much water, longer drying time), peppers (turn bitter when dried), or potatoes (too much starch, the powder becomes sticky).
Using up leftovers rather than buying fresh
The best occasion for this powder is the vegetable drawer at the end of the week. A limp carrot, half a celeriac, a few leftover leek pieces, the garlic cloves from the net that are already sprouting. These are exactly the things that make the best powder, because intensely flavoured vegetables become even more concentrated through drying. A tip from practice: we collect vegetable scraps in a bag in the fridge throughout the week and make a batch on Sundays. It saves money and fits our philosophy of using up what we have with the Thermomix®.
What does not work: mouldy patches, soft onions with a rotten core, carrots with a white beard. At the low temperature used for drying (80°C fan), bacteria are not reliably killed off. Anyone who wants to be on the safe side can let the powder dry at 100°C for a short time before grinding. Three minutes is enough.
The drying step determines shelf life
After chopping, a moist, sticky mass of vegetables sits on the baking tray. 80°C fan, 6 hours, middle shelf. That is non-negotiable. Going higher roasts the mixture and adds a slightly scorched note to the powder. Going lower risks the powder not being dry enough, so it clumps together in the jar or develops mould.
We open the oven door briefly once an hour. This is important, because otherwise moisture stays in the oven and the vegetables steam rather than dry. A wooden spoon wedged between the door and the frame works too and saves having to get up constantly. Anyone who owns a food dehydrator will get better results with it: 60°C, 8 to 10 hours, done. The flavour is a touch fresher than with the oven, because the lower temperature causes far fewer Maillard reactions.
The vegetables are fully dried when they snap between your fingers rather than bending. Carrot pieces turn translucent orange, leek strips crinkle and rustle, and the onion becomes light brown and see-through. If you are still unsure, take a few crumbs out and leave them to cool for 10 minutes. If they are hard and do not give at all, everything is dry. If they are still chewy, put them back in the oven for another half hour.
Grinding at speed 10: why 15 seconds is enough
The dried vegetables go back into the mixing bowl and are processed for 15 seconds at speed 10 into a fine powder. Grinding for longer does not make the powder finer, it only heats it unnecessarily. Anyone who wants a really dust-fine powder can place the mixing bowl in the freezer beforehand. Cold grinding in the Thermomix® produces a finer result because less frictional heat builds up. It is the same trick as when milling flour from grain.
If you prefer a coarser powder that you can sprinkle over salads or roasted vegetables, blend for only 8 seconds at speed 8. This gives a sprinkling consistency with visible flecks of carrot and leek. It also works well over quark or avocado toast.
Storing in a screw-top jar and realistic shelf life
The finished powder goes into a well-sealing screw-top jar. 200 g fits into a standard jam jar. Important: the jar must be clean and dry. Any residual moisture causes clumping and, in the worst case, mould. We rinse the jar out with hot water and leave it upside down on a cloth overnight to dry completely before using it.
With a salt content of around 12 per cent in the finished powder, the whole thing keeps without any trouble for 6 months in a dark, cool place, and often for 12 months. After about six months the flavour becomes flatter, because the essential oils from the parsley and garlic dissipate. That is why we prefer to make two smaller batches per year rather than one large one. Anyone who increases the salt ratio to 50/50 (that is, 250 g of salt to 250 g of vegetables) gets a noticeably saltier powder that keeps practically indefinitely. This is the classic Italian version, known as dado.
One last tip from practice: straight after grinding, the powder is slightly warm from the blending. We always leave it to cool uncovered for 20 minutes before filling it into the jar. Otherwise residual warmth condenses on the glass wall and the powder gets a damp rim. It sounds like a minor detail, but it makes the difference between a free-flowing powder and a solid block you have to scrape out of the jar with a knife.
What we actually use the powder for
The classic use is in any soup that starts with water. One teaspoon per 500 ml is our standard for a potato soup, a tomato soup made from fresh tomatoes, or a Peking soup with the Thermomix®. It is also a reliable seasoning for stews and braises, and works equally well to flavour Risotto, couscous, or a quinoa salad. When deglazing sauces, you can stir the powder directly into the water instead of dissolving a stock cube.
In the jar next to the salt shaker the powder earns its place too. A pinch over scrambled eggs, roasted vegetables, or a baked potato easily replaces table salt and adds noticeably more depth. Anyone who bakes bread can add a teaspoon to the water for the dough, which gives the loaf a very distinctive flavour.
Oven, food dehydrator, or air fryer: what really counts in the end
Dazu passt: Salzteig Thermomix®.
We have tested all three methods over the years. The oven at 80°C fan for 6 hours is our standard because everyone has one at home. The dehydrator at 60°C runs for 8 to 10 hours but uses less electricity, and the flavour stays a touch cleaner because the lower temperature triggers almost no Maillard reactions. The air fryer only works for small batches under 200 g and requires constant turning, so it is rarely worth the effort. Compared with other recipes, one thing stands out: we work with around 12 per cent salt, while many standard recipes use 30 to 50 per cent. Our powder still keeps for 6 to 12 months, because the drying is truly complete. Anyone who uses the powder quickly can comfortably stick with our salt level.
