How to prepare Mirepoix variations and other aromatic bases
You are in luck if you have been suffering from bland sauces, weak stews, and flavourless dishes. There is an ancient trick to infusing your meals with flavour, and it is as simple as sautéeing some aromatics in a pan for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Many chefs consider mirepoix to be the key ingredient for adding that extra oomph to a dish. It is the secret sauce, the essential ingredient, the reason your food tastes so good. The foundation of so many of the world’s greatest dishes, Mirepoix plays an important role in flavouring soups, stews, casseroles, braised meats, and marinades.
The main secret is slowly cooking these aromatic vegetables. It is merely a group of un-fancy vegetables that disappear, practically or literally, once they have performed their part. This simple step can take your dish from good to great! Even if you do not follow the listed combinations, it can add a tremendous amount of flavour. These vegetables are diced and sautéed in some type of oil.
This base is used in the completion of whatever dish you are cooking. They are meant to provide a subtle but pleasant background flavour, support and improve the flavour of the finished dish.
Many chefs consider mirepoix variations and other aromatic bases the key ingredient for adding that extra oomph to a dish.
What is French Mirepoix?
Mirepoix (pronounced meer-pwah) is the classic French blend made from finely diced onion, carrots, and celery, that are sautéed and simmered (usually with some sort of fat, like butter).
Cook them over low heat or medium-low heat to sweeten and deepen the flavours of a dish. You do not want to brown your vegetables: instead, cook them until they’re soft, fragrant, and translucent. The intention is to intensify the flavour of the vegetables without browning or caramelizing them.
The traditional ratio is 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot and 1 part celery – by weight. Check the detailed recipe.
This recipe starter is an ancient and intuitive part of the cooking process.
So don’t get stuck on specifics.
Even France, perhaps the most rigidly traditional culinary culture among us, does not always use the same proportions of onion, carrot, and celery to execute a dish.
Mirepoix vegetables are often finely chopped and sautéed, but they can just as easily be used whole or roughly chopped in slow-simmered stocks or braises. Small dice for soups, large chop for stews or stocks. When chopping, it helps to be particular about the uniform tiny dice of mirepoix, ensuring even cooking.
Mirepoix is traditionally used as a flavouring ingredient, which means the vegetables are typically strained out or removed from the final dish before the end of the cooking process.
Are there any Mirepoix variation?
Mirepoix is the classic French combination of aromatic vegetables, but other cuisines around the world have their own slight variations on the idea of chopped aromatics and vegetables to create a foundation for other recipes. All these terms refer to the basis of so many savoury dishes.
Almost every cuisine in the world starts with a common, simple, balanced, vegetable and herb aromatic base. There are some distinct groupings of aromatics that are sure to evoke the flavour of certain parts of the globe. It’s safe to say that there are hundreds of cuisines available in the culinary world, and almost all of them have special flavour bases.
Learn about a few of them here:
What is French Pinçage?
French pinçage (pronounced pin-sahge) is mirepoix with tomato paste added – tomato paste + onion + carrot + celery with butter. It’s a great option for adding mirepoix to sauces.
What is Brazilian (or Portuguese) Refogado?
This Portuguese base is made from onions, minced garlic and olive oil (or any cooking oil) and can also contain a bay leaf or two.
What is Italian Soffritto?
The Italian version of mirepoix, soffritto, starts with the same foundation of finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery with olive oil.
Uncooked, this combination is called the “battuto”.
Slowly cooked in olive oil, the battuto then becomes soffritto.
The vegetables can be diced small, minced or pureed in a food processor.
It can also include garlic, parsley, bell peppers or fennel and finely diced cured meats such as pancetta or prosciutto.
It is typically cooked in olive oil (not butter) until the vegetables are soft and brown.
They can also be slow-cooked in olive oil (not butter) until the vegetables are soft and brown.
The vegetables can be diced small or pureed in a food processor.
There is no set ratio for the ingredients; of course, every Italian grandmother has their own recipe.
Soffritto literally means to stir-fry in Italian.
Soffritto adds depth to braises and soups, like minestrone.
What is Spanish (or Latin) Sofrito?
Spanish sofrito is a basic Spanish red sauce that is made by cooking garlic, onion, tomatoes, and sometimes paprika and other vegetables (like bell peppers or herbs, for example) in olive oil.
It can be chopped by hand or in a food processor.
This flavourful tomato-based sauce is common in many recipes, including paella, stew, and pasta.
It is perfect for one-pot chicken stews, sauteed ground meats and soups.
Tip: Freeze cooked sofrito in ice cube trays for quicker meal preparation.
There are several other versions of Sofrito, including recipes from all over Latin America and Portugal.
Catalonia incorporated tomato, along with bell peppers, chopped sweet onions and garlic, to make sofrito. However, old-world-style dishes ignore the existence of tomato and bell pepper and call for sweet onions, leeks, carrots, and salt pork.
Latin America has taken the Spanish sofrito and adapted it to its local offerings.
In the Caribbean, sofrito refers to a wide variety of mixtures; one common type includes lard coloured with annatto seeds and mixed with ingredients like chiles, bell peppers, onion, cilantro, oregano, and ham.
Cuban sofrito looks like the Holy Trinity but with more garlic, while Ecuadorians begin a meal with freshly toasted cumin, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and sweet cubanelle peppers. You can find variations on this sofrito throughout Central and South America.
It is essential to note down that sofrito is with onions, tomatoes, and olive oil in Mediterranean cuisine, but garlic is optional.
This flavourful tomato-based sauce is common in many recipes, including paella, stew, and pasta.
Sofrito means “gently fried” in Spanish.
What is Puerto Rico Recaíto?
In Puerto Rico, many meals start with recaíto, a mixture of culanto (also called “blessed thistle,” the long, jagged-edged leaf herb has a similar taste to cilantro), ajices dulces (a type of small chile), onions, cubanelle peppers, and garlic.
Culantro leaves are minced down to confetti size and joined by ajices dulces. Add onions, cubanelles, garlic, and cilantro, and you have a mild, bright-green paste that packs stews and rice dishes with a fresh herbal punch.
What is The Holy Trinity (also known as Cajun Trinity)?
The backbone of Cajun and Creole cuisine, the Holy Trinity, consists of onion, celery, and green bell pepper with olive oil or butter.
Inspired by French methods and flavours, the Cajuns realized that the Louisiana ground wasn’t suitable for growing carrots, but was ideal for growing bell peppers.
The main similarity between mirepoix and the Cajun Trinity is that they’re both aromatic bases that require onion and celery. However, the Cajun Trinity calls for bell pepper instead of carrots.
Variations may include aromatics such as garlic, parsley, or shallots. However, this particular mixture does not usually have as many variations as the other mixtures.
Although there is a difference of opinion on this, the average ratio is 1-3 parts onion, 1-2 part celery and 1 part green bell pepper.
The Holy Trinity is the foundation for the best eating in New Orleans. Often, by adding a bit of flour and whisking, a roux is built right on top of these sweet and colourful aromatics to form the base of gumbo, étouffée, and other famous Cajun and Creole dishes.
What is German Suppengrün?
Suppengrün is of German origin and is made of carrots, celeriac (celery root) and leeks.
Variations can also include onions, herbs like parsley or thyme and other root veggies like parsnips and potatoes.
There is no set ratio.
Often these are sold pre-bundled in the market, ready to take home, chop, and sweat out in the pot for a stew.
Suppengrün literally means “soup greens” in German.
What is Polish Włoszczyzna?
From Poland, we get Włoszczyzna, similar to its German counterpart but often with cabbage as the primary ingredient.
It consists of carrots, parsnips or parsley root, celery root or celeriac, leeks, savoy or white cabbage leaves, and sometimes celery leaves and flat-leaf parsley. Traditionally, Włoszczyzna is uniformly chopped pieces of celery root, parsley root, carrots, and leeks and is boiled.
Włoszczyzna literally means “Italian stuff” in Polish.
What is Cantonese?
This Chinese cooking, Cantonese, uses a base of scallions, ginger, and garlic with cooking oil.
You will often find a mixture of chilli peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and white pepper.
How about West African?
Again, there is a huge amount of variety in this region, but if you could pin down one common flavour base, it would be a trio of tomatoes, onions, and spicy chiles.
How to prepare Mirepoix?
It’s super simple. Just heat some butter or oil over low heat, add the vegetables, and cook until tender.
Generally, the onions (or leeks) will be cooked in the fat first. What comes next depends on the particular mixture.
If garlic is called for, add it, but cook carefully so it doesn’t brown or burn.
Follow by adding the rest of the vegetables.
Lastly, add the herbs.
Usually, only “sweating” the mixture is what you want. This would be done on a lower heat just until the vegetables give off some of their juices, softening in texture but not browning. If you are using this base in a dish such as a soup, stew or pasta sauce, feel free to cook the vegetables until they are almost melted slowly. If you wish to add them to something like a frittata or omelet, you may want to stop cooking before they lose all their texture.
Typically, you want to try to avoid browning the vegetables. But if you are going for a more caramelized flavour, you can go ahead and char them a bit!
What size should I chop my vegetables?
Be sure to cut the vegetables relatively uniformly in size. Generally, the finer you chop the veggies, the quicker the aroma and flavours will be released. The shorter the cooking time of the ultimate dish, the smaller size the pieces should be. For longer times, they can be cut into larger pieces.
As a general guideline:
- For sautéed recipes– Use a smaller size (¼-inch to ½-inch)
- For soups and stews- medium size (½-inch to 1-inch)
- For stock, broth, or blended soups– large (1-2 inches)
Regardless of the size you choose, it is important to chop everything approximately the same size so that your vegetables cook evenly.
What comes first, the meat or the vegetables?
Proper cooking orders can be super confusing. Should I cook the vegetables and meat separately or together? If you are making a meat dish, it is customary to sear the meat first and then use that fat for cooking the onion, carrots, and celery.
Searing the meat first is especially important in stew, roasts, or curries that include beef, pork, or chicken thighs, as it creates extra flavour.
Can you use other ingredients?
Of course! For example, if you don’t want the mirepoix to colour your final dish, you could use parsnips instead of carrots or even button mushrooms.
You could also add a bouquet garni for some added flavour. A bouquet garni is just a little bundle of herbs that you cook along with the other vegetables. It makes it really handy to remove the herbs before serving.
Can you freeze Mirepoix?
Yes, you can freeze uncooked mirepoix. However, onions and celery do not freeze well. Once thawed, they are mushy and somewhat unappealing. For best results, I recommend using this in soups and stews that are cooked for a long time or blended where the texture does not need to be chunky.
If you use the trio of vegetables frequently, it might be a smart time-saving move. Just follow a series of simple steps:
- Dice your carrots, onions, and celery. Make a big batch so that it can be stored in individual freezer bags.
- Divide the mixture into one-cup portions, as this is a good amount for most recipes.
- Transfer the frozen veggies to freezer-safe bags labelled with the date.
Freeze for up to six months. For best quality, they should be used up within two months.
Thaw the mirepoix overnight in the fridge or cook from frozen with olive oil or butter.
What types of dishes can you use Mirepoix in?
You can use mirepoix in lots of different recipes!
When your mirepoix is finished, you’ll have a foundation you can build on with the other ingredients that will flavour your stock or sauce, including stock, herbs, additional vegetables, and proteins.
It is the base for almost all of your favourite French dishes and classic sauces. Even tossed with a simple pot of pasta, they can add a big flavour in just minutes.
Usually, it forms the base of soups, stews, sauces, braises, and casseroles. Chicken noodle soup is a classic that utilized this trio of vegetables.
Or you can add tomato paste and prepare this delicious Pinçage.
There are truly countless ways to use the aromatic base mixture. It’s absolutely essential in plenty of soups, stews, and sauces — but it’s also found in hamburgers and casseroles. What is your favourite?
I hope my easy tips will give you the confidence to step into the kitchen and prepare delicious meals to eat with a handful of close friends.
Have you made a Fast2eat Recipe? I love seeing your take on my recipe!
