Vegetable broth (or vegetable stock) is a staple in vegetarian cooking, and it's so simple to whip up a big batch and freeze it to have on hand for all your upcoming recipes. And as an added bonus, when making your own, you can control all the ingredients, including any that you may be allergic to and/or any that you may want to limit (like additional sodium).
I have included a basic recipe below if you want to start today, as well as a Super Simple version that allows you to substitute leftover kitchen scraps you save from favorite recipes.
Homemade Vegetable Broth
5-6 oz sliced mushrooms
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
3 cups chopped carrot or parsnips
1 cup chopped fennel bulb (optional)
Salt, to taste
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp black peppercorns
4 bay leaves (optional)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
approximately 4 quarts of water
- Heat the olive oil over high heat in an 8 quart stockpot. Add the mushrooms and saute until they are lightly browned and have given off some of their moisture.
- Add chopped onions, celery, carrots, and fennel (if using) and stir to coat. Sprinkle with salt. Cook over high heat for several minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until the vegetables begin to brown. Considering there are so many vegetables with a high moisture content, it may take more heat and longer time to brown.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add the rosemary, thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves (if using), parsley, and water. (Water should cover the vegetables and herbs.) Bring to a simmer and then drop the heat until you just get a bare simmer. The surface of the stock should just barely be bubbling. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
- Using slotted spoon, remove all the big pieces of vegetables. Discard or compost.
- Set up a sieve over large bowl or pot. Line the sieve with a paper towel and pour the stock through it. When you have poured about half the stock through, stop and let what is in the sieve filter through. Then, change the paper towel and filter the rest of the stock in the same way.
- To store, pour into quart-sized Mason jars and refrigerate for up to a week or freeze. If you freeze in glass jars, leave at least 1 1/2 inches of headroom so that the stock can expand without breaking the glass of the jars.
Super Simple Vegetable Broth
Every time you prepare a recipe, save your vegetable trimmings to store in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag in the freezer until you collect enough to make this homemade vegetable broth from the saved scraps.
Gallon-sized Ziploc bag of frozen vegetable scraps/end pieces and herbs
2 Tbsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp whole peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, minced
approximately 4 quarts water
1. Save the cut end pieces of vegetables and herbs in a gallon Ziploc bag in your freezer until the
bag is full. Onions, carrots, and celery are the base of a good vegetable broth, but use these guidelines for which vegetables to save for your broth:
- Good vegetables to save include: onions (including papery skins), green onions, celery (including leaves), carrots, mushrooms, leeks, scallions, shallots, and zucchini.
- Good herbs to save include parsley, thyme, rosemary, garlic (including papery skins).
- Do not save broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips, rutabagas, collard greens, kohlrabi, and kale because they will make your broth bitter.
- Do not save potatoes or sweet potatoes because they will cloud your broth.
2. Once the bag is full, add the frozen contents to an 8 quart stock pot and fill with water until the contents are covered by a few inches. You don't need to thaw the vegetables first.
- Add 2 tablespoons salt (or to taste), 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, and 4 cloves minced garlic (if you did not already save an abundance of garlic in your frozen vegetable bag).
3. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer the broth for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Strain and store as described above in steps 4-6.
Notes:
These recipes make about 5 quarts of vegetable broth.
You'll note that you remove all vegetables and herbs and then strain thoroughly before jarring and freezing. Because of this, there is no need to perfectly or finely chop any of the vegetables before you cook them. A rough chop just to get them to fit into the pot will do just fine.
Also, you'll note that the directions call for you to simmer. You'll want to make sure that you follow this closely. If you were to keep your broth at a rolling boil, much of it would evaporate during the cooking process!
Use either of these vegetable broths as the base for recipes, such as soups or risottos.
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