Upgrade Your Soup Broth With A Simple Tea Ball Tip

The best soup broths are infused with layers of flavor, providing a comforting, complex slurp in each spoonful. Complex, rich flavors are often achieved by simmering ingredients over a long period. A classic three-vegetable mirepoix of onions, celery, and carrots is perfect for creating a base layer of flavor, but adding a few more ingredients, such as fresh herbs, is vital to creating a truly flavorful soup broth.

A bay leaf or a bundle of fresh thyme or parsley can take your broth from simply "tasty" to simply irresistible. But whether leaf or bundle, any herbs just dropped into your broth to flavor it will need to be removed before you can consume the soup. A tidy tip is to use your tea ball – just stuff the tea ball with your choice of fresh or dried herbs and drop it into your soup broth. Using a tea ball as an herb infuser is an easy, and reusable, way to create a flavorful soup broth without having to go fishing for soggy herbs when you're ready to eat.

Experimenting with a bouquet garni – a bundled and bound bunch of herbs –in soup broth is a terrific way to use fresh herbs when they are at their fullest potential instead of letting them waste away in your refrigerator's produce drawer. Tying herbs together with kitchen twine is sufficient if you are working with fresh, leafy herbs. However, you might have to make a cheesecloth sachet for dried herbs or whole spices before they can go into a soup broth. 

But let's be real — cheesecloth isn't a pantry staple for everyone. Besides, a cheesecloth sachet is only good for one use. You can save money and time, as well as reduce waste, because with one tea ball, you can infuse countless pots of soup broth with herbaceous flavor. The fine mesh of a tea ball is just as permeable as cheesecloth, and you can find larger mesh tea balls or mesh tea containers that can easily fit full bundles of herbs, taking on your giant pot of soup with no problem.

With a tea ball at your side, you can discover a whole new world of flavor possibilities for soup broth. Dicing the herb stems cuts down on prep time while still delivering flavor, and using both whole and dried spices can create an undertone of savory and spicy aromatics. Whole peppercorns are a great way to add peppery flavor without overdoing it, as you could with ground pepper.

You don't have to fill your tea ball with only herbs and spices, either. For a bright, zesty broth, put bits of lemon peel and coriander in your tea ball. Or try the punchy combo of lime leaves, ginger, and lemongrass; and give your broth an Italian accent with a tea ball filled with basil, rosemary, and oregano. There's no wrong way to use a tea ball to infuse your soup broth with the deep, complex flavors of herbs and spices.  Wherever your creativity takes you, you can use a tea ball over and over again to get the flavorful broth you crave without any unnecessary hassle or mess.