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Garden Green
01-16-2009, 08:05 PM
I love vegetable stock. I use it instead of chicken broth when making chicken noodle, make my rice in it instead of water, etc. It just adds so much more flavor!

The nice thing here is that you can use vegetable scraps that you intend for the compost heap to make it, squeezing out those last little bits of flavor and aroma from the peels, ends and pieces before you add it to the worm bin.

There really isn't a recipe involved even though I'll include a couple below. The idea here is to use what you have on hand. You can add:

Carrots
Celery
Onion (any kind)
Garlic
Parsnips
Sweet Potatoes
Greens of all kinds
Turnips
Potatoes
Mushrooms
Leeks
Sweet and Hot Peppers
Zucchini
Squash
Peas
Green beans
Fennel
Black Peppercorns
Herbs in general

For additional flavor, you can roast the vegetables in the oven first, or sautee the onions, garlic, celery, leeks, etc in olive oil first as well. I'd stay away from cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower as their flavors can overpower the broth.

One recipe is:

1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
2 or 3 stalks of celery, coarsely chopped, including leafy ends
2 small zucchini, coarsely chopped
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced in half keeping the root end in tact and cleaned under running cold water
1 1/2 yellow onions, quartered
2 red bell peppers, quartered and seeded
1 head of garlic
2 or 3 shallots, halved
2 cup mushroom
leaves from 4 sprigs fresh marjoram
leaves from 4 springs fresh thyme
extra-virgin olive oil
12 cups water
1/2 cup crushed, canned or fresh tomatoes
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Coarsely chop the vegetables, roast if desired, add to stock pot with 12 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about an hour. Allow to cool a bit, strain, and then strain the vegetables again with cheese cloth. This makes about 8 cups. You can freeze this, or it will keep in the fridge for about a week. If you're feeling frisky, you can put it in jars, seal, and process in a hot water bath for another hour.

This one makes 8 cups also:

1 leek (about 12 oz.)
3 onions (1 1/2 lb. total), peeled and chopped
3 carrots (12 oz. total), scrubbed and chopped
2 stalks celery (4 oz. total), rinsed and chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
2 Roma tomatoes (6 oz. total), rinsed and quartered
1 head fennel (about 1 lb.; optional), rinsed, stalks trimmed, and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon black peppercorns

Trim and discard root end from leek; split leek in half lengthwise and rinse well under running water, flipping layers to release grit. Coarsely chop leek and place in an 8- to 10-quart pan. Add onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, tomatoes, fennel, parsley, thyme, oregano, peppercorns, and enough water to cover vegetables (about 2 qt.). Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer....


You can do a lot of different things. As long as you realize that you have to allow this to cook so that the liquid can reduce a bit. A good rule of thumb is 12 cups reduced to 8 cups. More different vegetables means more flavor.

I wouldn't add salt to this when you first make it. Like using unsalted butter to keep a recipe from having that extra salt, you want to treat this the same way.

plantoneonme
01-16-2009, 08:41 PM
I have a large zipper bag in the freezer that I add my "soup starter" veggies to. I place in things like onion peels, carrot peels and the ends, celery parts I don't use etc. When the bag is stuffed full, I use it to make soup. After boiling out all the flavor, the veggies are strained and added to the compost bin. Kim

MoniDew
01-17-2009, 07:39 AM
beats the bejabbers out of my basic leeks and carrots. THANKS!