A Practical How To: Homemade Veggie Stock

The most practical how to ever. How to make Homemade Vegetable Stock. I saw this on BuzzFeed’s Tasty and it’s been a repeat offender for me this winter, so I thought I’d post about it. The ziplock bag fills up quick! Well, maybe quick for me. The first time I made this, I had many stems from basil and the broth had a hint of that. This next few times, I tried to add ginger skin, garlic, more herbs and mushroom to add a more savory aspect. I also really like adding sweet potatoes since they naturally make the broth sweet, as do zucchini, carrots, squash and kale. I don’t add anything else to the broth, i.e. salt — I’m looking at you, since it’s much easier to salt the batch of what you make than try to rectify an overly salty mess. It’s kind of fun to see what you can save and so have fun turning your scraps into something useful. Waste not!

Ingredients (makes 8-10 c).

• 1 gallon ziplock bag full of veggie scraps
• Water

Here’s examples of veggie scraps:

• Onions and scallions (tops, bottoms and skins)
• Celery (tops/bottoms)
• Carrots (tops, bottoms and skins)
• Mushrooms (stems)
• Garlic (tops, bottoms and skins)
• Potatoes (tops, bottoms and skins) — I like sweet potatoes!
• Fresh herbs (stems) like dill, thyme, parsley, cilantro, and basil
• You can add many other vegetable scraps (think sweet!)
  • Corn cobs
  • Winter squash, zucchini (tops/bottoms) and other squash
  • Beet greens, fennel, chard, lettuce, kale stems, parsnips
  • Green beans, pea pods
  • Bell peppers (stems/removed insides)
  • Ginger root (skins)

Avoid: vegetables like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or cauliflower since they can add a bitter taste to the stock.

Add In’s (optional if you don’t have garlic skins in your bag):

• Whole black peppercorns
• Whole garlic cloves
• Fresh ginger medallions

Directions.

1. Remove the tops/bottoms/skins/stems from any vegetables you are preparing (using the examples above) and place the veggie scraps in a gallon ziplock bag. Place bag in freezer. (The scraps can stay frozen up to 6 months.)
2. Continue like this until bag is full.
3. Dump bag into a large soup pot and fill pot with water until scraps are covered and just start to float.
4. Bring water to a boil and then let it simmer for at least 30 min, but preferable 1-2 hrs.
5. Strain water out of stock.
6. Refrigerate stock up to 4 days or freeze up to 3 months. If you freeze broth, make sure to leave at least a 1 inch gap from the top of the broth to the top of the container. (Don’t forget liquid expands when it freezes! This prevent the container from breaking or from the liquid overflowing during freezing process.)
7. Waste not and enjoy using your homemade stock!

Adapted from BuzzFeed Tasty‘s “How To Make Veggie Stock From Chicken Stock.”