Brilliant Base: Roast root vegetable stock

For those who are not vegan, we have a great bone marrow broth, but we felt it was also right to come up with a vegan stock to rival this for those who prefer to be meat-free.

This is super-easy to make: chop a heap of nutritious veggies, give them a slight roasting in the oven to colour, then slow cook (up to overnight) to extract all the goodness into the liquor.

It might sound like a lot of work, but it really isn’t – and nothing beats a good homemade stock when it comes to adding flavour and nutritional value to all your dishes.

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C/360F (fan) or 200C/390F (convection)
   Chop all vegetables to 2cm cubes
2. Toss in the olive oil, coconut sugar and sea salt to cover
3. Lay out on roasting tray and roast for 25-30 mins turning every 2-3 mins until deep golden all over
4. Remove from the oven and turn it down to 80C/180F(fan) or 100C/210F (convection) if using an oven to cook
5. Add the vegetables to a pot, add in all the other ingredients plus the water and stir to mix
6. Cover the pot with a lid or foil and slow cook for 6-8 hours OR cook on the stove top on low, or in a slow cooker
7. Pass through a sieve and portion into 500g/18oz servings in jars, or store in one large jar
8. To create a gravy, fish out the hard herbs and blend the left-over soft vegetables into the stock with liquidiser or stick blender