Vegeta seasoning??? Anyone?? Eastern Europeans???

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kenmoreguy89

kenmoreguy89

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Valenza Piemonte, Italy- Soon to be US immigrant.
I have been told very good about this Eastern European "all purpose" seasoning, broth preparation, soups, meat, fish, marinades, pasta, risotto etc.
"Vegeta" ...... Dragon Ball has nothing to do of course! : D
It inspires me ..... very interesting, for sure it's not like The Knorr Aromat (s**t) which is all about chems, glutamate and fake sintetic stuff and aromas, seems like the kind of seasoning that I seek from very long wihout finding it anywhere, with b the so many different vegetables, herbs and spices to use even for marinating etc ... someone ever tried it?
 
I used to use it...

 

<span style="font-size: medium;">My partner at the time ( a Yugoslavian) introduced it to me back in 1988 when I was in Dusseldorf. He put it in many of his dishes, my favorite was his goulash. I loved it. But sometimes I'd get this mild stomach ache. At first I didn't suspect it was the Vegeta, but when I brought back bags of it to New York and started to cook with it,  the pain started again, so I knew it was that. I suspect it was the MSG it had then. I think they have a non MSG version now. I remember seeing it recently at a local supermarket.</span>

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Podravka_Vegeta.jpg
 
I've used it for years in soups or stews. It's readily available in most grocery stores I've ever been in. Either in the spice section or the ethnic section.  The main ingredient is salt with some spices and flavorings added so if you're on a sodium restricted diet.. stay away. 
 
It's Available Here.....

....In Waterloo, Iowa, which has a substantial Bosnian population.

P.S.: If you want to see hard work, good humor, resilience and determination, hire a Bosnian.
 
Yes, I like and use it too. However I sift it and remove 2/3 of the salt. I use the salt which has some seasoning flavor in other dishes that need a bit of salt. Been awhile since I had some will have to get a bag or can soon. Love fresh green beans cooked with a nice pinch of the seasoning and butter.
 
I've seen it in the shops but never tried it as I thought it was mainly just an expensive way of buying salt. The selection of herbs and spices here is quite limited so I brought a few items back from UK when I was over a few weeks ago. One thing I did bring was cooking salt, as that does not exist in Hungary but for veg I find it harder to judge the right quantity with table salt.
 
Managed to get a pack of this Vegeta from the same guy who told me about this (his girlfriend is from Slovenia), and it's very good! You can clearly see the pieces of vegetables in it and yes that's very true, I just made a risotto this morning adding it to the stock and I liked it, looking forward to do lots of things with it and try it everywhere, I never seen a similar thing over here, it's very convenient for most preparations! And looks is like what I always seeked for and never found anywhere, I always wondered if there was something like that around.
Subsastially it's seasoned salt with vegetables and herbs, and yes right it contains some glutamate too but I could see is at the bottom of ingredients list so probably less than the usual contents of seasonings, but totally different thing of the Aromat I mentioned you can clearly taste the real vegetables flavour in it while the aromat is all about Glutamate in it and fake sinthetics aromas,infact I pretty disliked the aromat as it's fake flavour IMHO, the only thing you can taste which looks real is onion, garlic and mushrooms but there's something in it that tastes fake and may ruin a dish.
Really pleased for it, low salt diet is not a problem in my home, and then...this would be a problem for every seasoned salt or product containing it, you use it instead than adding other, like for stock for the asparagus risotto today I just used 1 cube and 2 tsp and half of it and it was just enough...
I like it, I'm happy for this find.

[this post was last edited: 6/8/2013-14:17]
 
Fido....what is cooking salt????
Guess it has something to do with the grinding...

Over here cooking salt is same as table salt....
There is coarse salt (used in pasta water and BBQ), then fine salt...
For fine salt there is a more finest variation you may find in a plastic sprinkler (mostly this only brand: "Novo sal") but in some places there is not even that one (that some would prefer for seasoning for some reasons), but few buys it as long as fine salt in paper boxes is pretty much the same size forv every and works just as well for seasoning, anyway never heard this distinction from table and cooking salt over here, there is just fine salt and is used as table and cooking salt....
 
Well, surely compared to others including the Aromat I mentioned which has it as third in the list after salt and before "flavourants", so it actually has more glutamate than flavourants, is a good thing for this Vegeta....also considering that usually seasonings and stock cubes do have it in greater quantities compared to the composition and use for this one...and you can replace most part of cube using with this one if not totally for some dishes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aromat
But the wikipedia list of ingredients I posted leaves me a little puzzled as what I could read in packages of Aromat is different.
Moreover....the italian website of knorr Aromat mention glutamate as second in the list:
http://www.knorr.it/prodotti/condimenti_e_insaporitori/insporitori/aromat
Anyway no comparable to it at all, totally different thing, or any other product for seasoning I've seen.

Glutamate unfortunately is always present in most of cubes and stuff like that etc...as long as you don't abuse of it is okay. Certainly if you're used to eat chinese often that's a thing is assured in great quantities in most of their preparations....unhealty, of course...famous is the "chinese restaurant Syndrome"...
Sad thing is that most restaurants do have bags full of pure glutamate they use as if it was salt or almost...
Also sad is that it's a thing that is used largely even in ready meals and or frozen stuff and many of the industrial food....
 
Fortunately more and more Chinese restaurants stopped using Glutamate. Also the traditional Chinese restaurant is disappearing being replaced by more modern Asian food restaurants.

Both Aromat and Vegeta are bad. I would never use them. I hate things boiled in stock too. As a foodie I want to taste pure flavours, these products prevent to get that pure taste.
 
I love real taste also, that's also why I like this vegeta as you can feel real vegetables in it....
I love make my own stock/bouillon for example, but I've to admit that at times the cubes and powders comes really on help...make a stock for a risotto from the beggining would take hours, I do always put fresh vegetables, chicken cuts but when on hurry I also put cubes because by working I do not have time to let it boil hours and hours and reduce it.. same is for vegeta, it can give a nice taste whever you do not have time enough to prepare a thing since the start..hard to explain.
I can tell you being graduated in cooking school and having worked in many restaurants (inclduing Micheline star rated "Buoi Rossi Alessandria"-"Il Grappolo Alessandria" etc) that products containing glutamate and seasoning with it, generally, at least over here in Italy and guess worldwide are largely used in resaturants too even high rated ones or ones claiming to offer the most "genuine" cusine, glutamate is nothing but a flavour enhancer, chemical obtained, so it enhance flavours and it is proven it does not alterate them, like would do indeed fake spices and aromas in some cubes and seasonings where glutamate is also found, fake aromas which I can clearly recognize when are used... but I'm not able to tell when a product do contains glutamate or nor though, hard task for sure for everyone.
I agree with you that would be better it was not used in some cases, what I'm saying is that glutamate or compounds have been part of kitchen for ages like it was since times of Ancient Romans when they used "glutamic acid" for their "Garum" which was a fish sauce considered the "ketchup" of ancient romans, even what you'd consider "genuine" kitchen nowadays likely has at least a part of the finished dishes where glutamate has been used.
Of course would be better to avoid the use of it and products containing it as much we can or at least do not drop dashes on everything even where it is not needed and you could easily use other more natural things instead, and so also use salt instead of pure GSM which is more natural, being GSM anyway a chemical obtained thing and despite what studies tells that there is no danger for human health is better to avoid because of many reasons including the Syndrome I mentioned that surely is not a result of some freaks, rather as everything, when something brings so much money like GSM, health pass second than it.....but again likely glutamate would even be present in the risotto or roast you're eating in the most rated restaurants...very hard to stay way of it, okay to use not abuse.[this post was last edited: 6/8/2013-17:43]
 
"I love real taste also, that's also why I like this vegeta as you can feel real vegetables in it...."

Thanks for the good laugh! I think we will have to agree to disagree on this. Some dried vegetables mixed with a lot of salt and Glutamte are not exactly what I had in mind when I was talking about pure taste.
 
You probably don't get what I'm talking about...... I'm the one laughing actually.
I meant that I like this seasoning because differently than for example the usual cubes for stock or seasonings it gives a natural *more natural* flavour, being the vegetables in it TOTALLY dried/freeze dried and left in pieces, this differently than most of others cubes or powders or seasoning where even for the "better quality" ones and where're actually used "true vegetables" and not fake stuff are anyway combined all togheter in a greasy, fine, and thick and "wet" cube or fine powder and vegetables does not get the best of theirselves also because in cubes they've been partially "cooked" from the salt in them, then many cubes are filled with fake aromas also.
That's also why glutamate is so largely used in them, because enhance their flavours that otherwise would be very weak.
So the pure taste speech I did is to be meant compared to others type of seasonings and stuff..
I told you I love pure taste also, of course if I make a "self-made" hours boiled stock without them would be totally different and better tasteful and you could actually notice the real "genuine" taste, BUT since I also told you that not always there is enough time to make things from the start here this Vegeta IMHO is a great thing as I never foun something barely resembling it around...
It compared to most types of seasonings and cubes of this kind provides a real taste, or better say a "more real" taste...
 

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