For vegans and vegetarians, we offer many soup recipes. We couldn’t provide it to you because we didn’t have a good Asian or Chinese vegetable stock recipe.

Many of the Asian-style vegetable stock recipes we’ve discovered online don’t have the flavor we were looking for, and many Western-style vegetable stock recipes do.

After much anticipation, the finest Asian vegetable stock recipe is finally here! As an added benefit, it’s vegan and relatively simple to make!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 of napa cabbage (cut in half lengthwise)
• 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil (divided)
• 7 slices of ginger (20g, or 0.7 oz.)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 cubes of white fermented bean curd (0.8 ounces, 23g, optional)
• 1 onion (peeled and quartered)
• 1 pound of carrots (450g, peeled and cut into large chunks)
• 8 scallions
• 8 ounces of daikon radish (225g, peeled and cut into chunks)
• 1 5×5 inch piece of dried kelp (kombu) (13x13cm, rinsed)
• 16 dried shiitake mushrooms (rinsed)
• 16 cups of water (1 gallon, or about 4L)
• salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. The oven should be preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut your napa cabbage in half lengthwise, then in half again. The oil should be softly drizzled over the cabbage on a sheet pan—for 25 minutes on the grill.

2. Put 1 tablespoon of oil to a large stockpot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Garlic and ginger should only be cooked for a few minutes to release their flavor, not browned. After another minute, add the fermented bean curd and simmer for a few more seconds. In addition to that, you’ll need to add onion, kelp, daikon, dried shiitake mushrooms, and water to your stockpot. Add the roasted napa cabbage to the saucepan at the end of the roasting process.

3. Cook for 4 hours with the lid on at low heat after bringing to a boil—season to taste with salt after straining the stock.