Mushroom broth substitutes

Not really a substitute so much as the same product made faster. Dried mushrooms are concentrated by drying, so a small handful gives a liquid that is often stronger and darker than commercial mushroom broth, and you get the rehydrated mushrooms to use in the dish as a bonus.

Best for

risotto, ramen and noodle broths, gravy, braises, mushroom soup, stews

Porcini gives the deepest, most perfumed and slightly sweet result and is the best for Italian dishes. Dried shiitake is smokier and more savoury and is the right choice for Asian broths. Both are gritty, so ladle the liquid off the top or strain through a coffee filter rather than tipping the bowl. Season it, because on its own it has no salt at all.

The likeliest thing to already be in the cupboard, and the soy sauce is doing specific work rather than being a garnish. Vegetable broth on its own is too light and too sweet to stand in; soy sauce adds the glutamate, the salt and the brown colour that make mushroom broth read as meaty.

Best for

soups, risotto, vegan gravy, braises, grains, stews

Comes out lighter and sweeter than the real thing, with a noticeable carrot and celery note from the vegetable broth that mushroom broth does not have. Adding a pinch of mushroom seasoning powder, or half a teaspoon of white miso, makes it markedly closer. Taste before salting, since the soy sauce brings its own.

The direct swap in the other direction. Mushroom broth is usually chosen as a vegetarian stand-in for beef broth, so if the dish does not need to be meat-free, going straight to beef broth gives you the depth and the colour with no adjustment at all.

Best for

French onion soup, risotto, gravy, beef stews, barley soup, pan sauces

Meatier and fattier with a little gelatin, so sauces made with it have a fuller, glossier body that mushroom broth cannot give. It tastes of beef rather than of earth and mushroom, which in French onion soup or a barley soup is an improvement and in a delicate mushroom consomme is the wrong dish. Clearly not vegetarian.

A clean vegan route with real savoury power, since kombu is one of the most glutamate-rich ingredients there is. Steep it in hot water below a simmer, because boiling kombu turns the liquid slimy and bitter.

Best for

noodle broths, ramen, clear soups, steamed dishes, braised vegetables, rice

Much lighter in colour and cleaner in flavour, with a faint oceanic note rather than an earthy one, so a soup made this way tastes elegant and thin instead of dark and meaty. Combining kombu with dried shiitake is the classic pairing and gives a far more complete savouriness than either alone. A pinch of MSG or mushroom seasoning powder pushes it further.

The two-minute version when there is nothing in the cupboard but condiments. Miso supplies salt, body and fermented savour, soy sauce supplies colour and glutamate, and together they turn plain water into something with genuine backbone.

Best for

noodle soups, braises, risotto, greens and vegetables, stews, grains

Cloudier and beanier than mushroom broth, with an obvious miso character rather than an earthy one. Red or darker miso gets closer to the deep brown savouriness, white miso stays sweeter and lighter. Whisk the miso into hot rather than boiling liquid off the heat so it does not go grainy.

In a dish with plenty of flavour of its own, a heavily spiced stew, a tomato braise, a pot of beans, the mushroom broth was contributing much less than the recipe implies, and salted water performs the same job.

Best for

spiced stews, tomato-based dishes, beans and pulses, cooking grains and rice

It genuinely fails in anything where the broth is what you taste. A clear mushroom soup, a mushroom risotto or a French onion soup made with salted water comes out thin and hollow, and more salt does not fix it because the missing element is savoury depth rather than saltiness. Brown some sliced mushrooms hard in the pan first and you recover most of it.