Bitter Broth? How to Prevent or Fix Bitter Vegetable Broth (Stock)

Have you ever spent hours lovingly making your own homemade broth or stock, only to have it end up tasting bitter? Ugh, that’s always a bummer! But it happens to the best of us. The good news is: there are a number of ways to prevent bitter broth – or even get rid of bitterness after it’s made! So, read along to learn what ingredients to use (or avoid) to make the best-tasting homemade vegetable broth or stock, plus a few easy ways to fix and save bitter broth to improve its flavor.

How to make homemade vegetable broth

Homemade vegetable broth is made by combining a myriad of vegetables in a pot with water, and simmering it for about an hour to extract the vitamins, minerals, and flavors of the vegetables. Then, the liquid broth is strained and reserved while the leftover vegetables can go in the compost pile. 

Common vegetable broth ingredients include onion, carrots, celery, garlic, tomato, and herbs, among others. You can use fresh vegetables to make homemade broth, or like we do, keep veggie scraps and trimmings in the freezer until you save up enough to make a fantastic zero waste homemade vegetable broth! 

Learn how to make homemade vegetable broth using saved scraps here.

How to prevent bitter vegetable broth

To prevent bitter-tasting vegetable broth, create a well-balanced flavor profile by adding plenty of sweet, savory, acidic, and mild-flavored ingredients to the pot upfront.

Great additions to broth include:

• Sweet onion
• Carrots. Shred, grate, or finely chop the carrots to increase their surface area and infuse the most sweet flavor into the broth.
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Red bell peppers
• Tomatoes – fresh, canned, frozen or tomato paste
• Salt 

What makes broth bitter?

A number of ingredients may make vegetable broth taste bitter. Therefore, it’s best to avoid these ingredients – or use them in moderation. 

• Onion skins
• Peppercorns
• Bitter greens, such as dandelion greens or mustard greens.
• Tough or woody herb stems, such as rosemary stems, thyme stems, oregano stems, or even hard basil stems. Fresh tender stems from young herbs shouldn’t be as bitter.
• Bay leaves add a nice subtle earthiness or even sweet flavor to soups, stews, and stock when used in moderation (just one or two leaves). However, bay leaves can also make stock bitter if used in excess. 
• Celery leaves are often suspected to cause bitterness, but we use them in broth and soup all the time. Just go light on them. Also, the tender greens within the center/heart of a bunch of celery are far less bitter than the darker green leaves from the large outer celery stalks.
• Brassica or cabbage family trimmings (e.g. broccoli or cauliflower stems and leaves) are also rumored to make vegetable broth taste bitter. However, we use small amounts of them in broth quite often and don’t think they cause any issues – especially compared to the other “bitter ingredients” on this list! If anything, peel and discard the outer skin of the stem and only use the tender inner portion in your broth. Broccoli stems are sweet in my experience!

Tips while cooking broth

• For an even deeper, richer, sweeter broth flavor: roast or saute the vegetables in olive oil or butter before they go into the pot with water.
  
  
• Bone broth or meat-based stocks are often simmered for several hours, up to 24 hours or longer. However, it’s not necessary to cook vegetable broth nearly as long! In fact, overcooking vegetable broth may make it bitter. Therefore, 45 minutes to an hour is plenty long. 

• Be sure to stop and taste test your homemade vegetable broth after it’s been simmering for about 25 to 30 minutes. Then, if you need to make any adjustments or “fixes” – you have plenty of time to do so!

How to Fix Bitter Broth: 5 ways to reduce or get rid of bitterness

The best way to reduce or get rid of bitter flavor in broth is to add sugar and acid to offset the bitterness. Adding sugar and acid doesn’t just mask the bitter flavor; it actually changes the chemistry within the broth!

Do one or a combination of the following: 

1. Add apples! Grate and add one sweet apple (e.g. Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji, Golden Delicious) for every 2-3 quarts of bitter broth in the pot. After adding grated apple, continue to simmer for an additional 30 to 45 minutes to sweeten up. Don’t worry! It may sound odd, but we even add apples to soup sometimes – like our creamy roasted butternut squash and sage soup. 
   
   
2. If you don’t have any apples on hand, add a little sugar instead. Start with a small amount (no more than ½ tsp per quart of broth) and then taste and adjust as needed.
   
   
3. Tomato paste is both sweet and acidic, and will help reduce bitterness in vegetable broth too.
   
   
4. Enhance umami flavors with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast or dollop of creamy miso paste. I recommend mixing miso paste with a small amount of hot water to fully dissolve it before adding it to the broth.
   
   
5. Turn up the acid with a splash of red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice – about ½ tsp per 2 quarts of broth – but after the broth is done cooking and removed from the heat. The tanginess brightens the broth and enhances all the other good flavors, including umami.

And that’s how to fix bitter vegetable broth!

Pretty easy, huh? I hope these tips help you make the best homemade broth ever. After making a large batch of broth (and allowing it to rapidly cool) we portion it out into these durable, reusable BPA-free quart containers to freeze. Then, we can use our own broth in recipes like no-chicken noodle soup, hearty kale lentil soup, creamy roasted tomato basil soup, vegan pumpkin 3-bean chili, and more. Yum!

Finally, let us know if you have any questions in the comments below. Please also consider leaving a review if you found this useful!