With Easter just a few days away, Lent is coming to a close. For my Lenten sacrifice this year, I decided to eliminate as much food waste as possible from my life, and one of the ways I chose to do that was by saving vegetable scraps to make stock. I’m happy to announce that just last week, the ziplock bag in my freezer was FINALLY full enough to make a batch of stock! Yaaay! I’ve provided the method I used in the post below. It’s a slight variation on this method from Serious Eats. It’s super easy and versatile, just right for helping me maintain my low-food-waste goals when Lent is over. Plus, I’m thinking plain vegetable stock and bread would be an appropriate Good Friday meal, since it’s simple while still being healthful. Enjoy! 🙂
Easy Homemade Vegetable Stock
INGREDIENTS:
- You can find a more comprehensive list here, but some common veggies that go great in stock include the following:
- As Much as You Want
- Onions
- Carrots
- Celery
- Garlic
- A Little Goes a Long Way
- Onion skins (these don’t affect the flavor but add deeper color)
- Potatoes and potato skins (make sure the skins are very clean, or the stock can taste like dirt)
- Peas
- Parsley
- Basil
- Chives
- As Much as You Want
- I also like to add 1-2 bay leaves and salt and pepper to taste
Makes approx. 6 cups of stock
INSTRUCTIONS:
-
- Every time you peel onions or carrots, chop the ends off of celery, have leftover fresh herbs, etc.—add the scraps to a large freezer bag. When it’s full, you’ve got enough to make stock!
We eat veggies almost every night, so it took me about a month to accumulate enough scraps for stock. Mine was mostly onion, but it also had some red potato, asparagus stalks, garlic, basil, and parsley. - When the bag is full, fill a large stock pot half full with vegetable scraps. Add the bay leaves. Fill the pot with cold water until the vegetables are just covered.
- Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 45-60 minutes. Strain out and save the liquid. Discard the vegetable matter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Transfer to a sealable container (I used 3 large mason jars) and freeze until the next time you make soup!
There’s nothing quite like homemade stock. It adds a little extra life to soup, rice, and loads of other cooking applications. I also love this corn stock recipe from Simple Bites (it’s the first homemade stock recipe I ever made, so be sure to check it out!).
- Every time you peel onions or carrots, chop the ends off of celery, have leftover fresh herbs, etc.—add the scraps to a large freezer bag. When it’s full, you’ve got enough to make stock!
This is such a good idea! I think I’ll have to start doing this because I have several recipes that require veggie stock and usually I just buy it, but this could save some pennies and some food waste in my house!
storitorigrace.blogspot.com
Yeah, I always felt weird throwing veggie scraps away (we rent our house, so no compost pile or enough ways to use composted soil). This was a great alternative for me. I also love that it lasts longer than the store bought stock. I freeze it in tupperware containers or large mason jars, and it lasts for ages.
[…] cups good quality vegetable stock (I used my own homemade stock—which makes about 6 cups—and supplemented with a can of store […]