Cheater Beef Broth for Pho

Don't got meat? Here's my cheat:

• 2 cans Campbell's beef consomme
• 2 packets Lipton onion soup powder, sift out onions.
• 1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon concentrate
• 1 "tub" Knorr beef broth gel
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 star anise
• 2 cup water
• teaspoon Italian seasoning
• teaspoon Garam Masala
• 1 dash Five Spice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• teaspoon shrimp powder
• fish sauce to taste, a couple tablespoons
• few dashes Worcestershire
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• half teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 a fat finger of ginger grated (~1-2 big tablespoons after grating)

Broken up celery stalks if you have any, also check your freezer for saved vegetable scraps, now is the time.

Boil and simmer 30 minutes or so to let the essence out of the ginger, anise and bay leaves, then strain through cheesecloth. Add a bit of sugar or lime juice if too salty.

Makes about 4 2-cup servings

Nice strong, rich and balanced broth for noodle slurping, or even for sipping by itself.

Update for 6 servings, deluxe:
Skipped the celery stalks, as they were adding too much bitterness. Added celery salt instead.
Added 2 more cans of consomme and 2 more cups of water to make a big batch of pho. 6 bags of broth, cooled, frozen.

Cooked a pound of noodles al dente, drained and lightly oiled and bagged.
Stirfry chopped baby bok choy, 6-8 heads, add to noodle bags. Cooled and frozen.

Meatbag got 5 meatballs, 5 slices of beef. 
Mini veg bags got 2 purple onion slices, 1 tablespoon sliced green onion, sprigs of mint, basil, vietnamese sawtooth herb, cilantro, handful of mung bean sprouts. Minibags go into meat bags.

Reheating: Warm the noodles in the bag. Gently warm the meat to slightly warm. Heat the broth to boiling cauldron hot. Add meat, then noodles, then herbs.

Eating: Wooow. Best batch ever. Bok choy brought lots of sweet bitter flavor, broth was on point, mix of herbs and meat was just perfect. Super fancy pants pho.