How to Make Vegetable Stock

One of the things I like most about making my own veggie stock is that it relieves me of the guilt of throwing away the trimmings of my vegetables. I save all of my carrot tops and peels, bottoms of onions, mushroom stems, spinach stems, ends of celery, etc. I store them in a big ziplock bag in my freezer, and when the bag gets full, or when I need some stock for a recipe, I just boil them down! In case you’re in a hurry or just don’t feel like saving your trimmings, I’ve made an official recipe below. I save pretty much all of my veggie trimmings, but I’ve been told that potatoes, zucchini, and green beans do not work well. Feel free to google what vegetables do and do work well, and let me know what has worked well for your stocks. Now let’s get this broth going!

How to Make Vegetable Stock

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

1 package mushrooms, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 bunch of spinach, chopped

4 stems of thyme, chopped

2 stem rosemary, chopped

2 bay leaves

1-2 tsp salt

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 sheet of kombu (optional, but it gives it a great, savory taste)

Enough water to just cover the veggies (about 10-12 cups)

Directions:

Throw all of your chopped veggies and seasonings into a big stock pot and cover with water.

Turn the stove on to high heat, and bring to a boil. Once your stock has come to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for an hour to hour and a half. The longer you cook the stock, the more concentrated the flavor will be.

Taste your stock and adjust seasonings accordingly. Remember that you will be seasoning whatever recipe you use this stock in, so be careful not to over salt or over season it now.

Strain the liquid into a couple of big jars and let cool before storing in the fridge. You can store the stock in your fridge for about a week or store it in your freezer for way longer.