Vegetable Broth

Vegetable broth is such a wonderful staple to have on hand for making anything from a flavorful soup to adding depth to a rice or noodle dish. It’s also incredibly easy to make your own and you get to control what goes into it and if you want to add any salt. I always have homemade vegetable broth on hand and I thought I would designate a post to how I make it and store it:

I do not grocery shop to make my vegetable stock, I simply save all my vegetable cuttings, peelings and scraps over the course of the week from meal prepping and chopping for dinners in an airtight bag in the freezer until I am ready to make another batch. Freezing the produce stems and clippings not only keeps it fresh, but preserves its flavor longer. And my family and I get to enjoy most of those vegetables in our food. The pieces and parts you might toss into the garbage bin or your compost pile, I use to make vegetable broth.

 

 

First you will need to bring 3 liters (12 cups) of water to a boil in your stock pot and then add in the frozen vegetable trimmings. My bag of vegetable trimmings usually contains a variety of onions, carrots, celery, peppers and greens. Sometimes I have mushroom stems and even some fresh herbs. Bring water and vegetable trimmings to a rolling boil over high heat and cover with a lid. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking with a gentle boil for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and let the pot cool for 30 minutes.

Strain the liquid from the vegetables by pouring out of the pot into a fine mesh strainer. I do this in batches and slightly press and squeeze the vegetables to make sure I am getting all the liquid from them. You can then add your vegetables to your compost or simply toss them out.

Once the entire mixture is strained, you will want to pour it into jars for storing for about 5-7 days in the refrigerator or into ice cube to freeze for up to 4 months. I love freezing most of my broth, I can pull them out to thaw as needed for a recipe or just toss a few cubes into a hot pan for an non-oil sauteéd dish.

This recipe will give you approximately 8-9 cups of vegetable broth depending on how long you boil and reduce it down uncovered.