How to Make Lemongrass Stock, aka What I Want to Drink All Winter

Lemongrass stock is easy to make and great for soups, but it’s also a lovely drink that might cure what ails you.

I have declared this fall and winter to be the season of Soup Wednesday, meaning that once a week (usually on Wednesday) I make some kind of soup. It’s been going on for more than two months now and I love it for a lot of reasons I’ll probably go into in another post, but not the least of which is that it introduced me to this broth.

Lemongrass stock is a perfect base for Thai and Asian soups. I first made it for a Thai carrot soup, which was amazing, but the stock itself is flavorful, delicate and delicious as well.

In fact, that first time I made it, I had a sore throat and I wanted to drink some of it as tea.

So I did.

And it did make me feel better.

I think it’s the huge amount of ginger.

If I manage to make some just for drinking purposes instead of using in a soup, I think I’ll add garlic instead of onion. But it’s really yummy either way, and super simple to make.

Lemongrass Stock Recipe

This recipe is adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook.

• 4 stalks lemongrass
• 3 celery stalks
• 2 carrots
• 1 large onion
• a large hunk of ginger, maybe 4 or 5 inches long
• 1 tbs oil
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp whole coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 cups of water

1. Chop all the vegetables and the ginger roughly. I go with pretty big hunks, but it doesn’t matter all that much the size.
2. Add oil to a stock pot on medium heat.
3. Add vegetables and cook, stirring regularly, until the onions start to get a little translucent, or about 10 minutes.
4. Add peppercorns, coriander and salt, and add water.
5. Bring to a boil, turn down to low, cover and cook about an hour.
6. I usually turn off the heat and let it sit with the vegetables in the stock as it cools, another hour or so.
7. Strain the stock and refrigerate or freeze.

This batch is going into a Thai chicken and rice soup, which reminds me if you happen to have chicken bones you could throw them in, too, but it might mess with the delicacy of the finished broth. But if you give it a try I’d love to hear how it goes!

Do you have a favorite soup recipe? Goodness knows I’m going to need some more to keep this soup train going!