Homemade Veggie Stock

It’s no secret that I hate food waste. I’m also not a fan of processed foods with lots of nasty additives and preservatives. That’s why I love homemade stock so much. It uses up all of the scraps you would usually throw out, and saves you money on store-bought stock. In addition, homemade stock is so much better for you than stock powder, which is full of MSG, hydrogenated oils and other ingredients which do not constitute real food.

To make veggie stock, you need a lot of veggie scraps. You can use most kitchen scraps including onion ends and skins, zucchini ends, the green part of leeks, carrot tops, wilted celery, wilted herbs, dried out mushrooms. The last time I used the cores of capsicums (peppers) but I think they turned the mixture bitter, so will leave them out in the future. Other veggies to leave out include cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower as they also turn the mixture bitter. For a great comprehensive list of what to use and what not to use, check out this page.

Also make sure you don’t save anything that has actually gone bad, as it will make the whole stock taste rotten. Anything that has gone a bit soft is fine though.

You need quite a lot of scraps to make stock, so I usually save them in two ziploc bags in the freezer until I am ready to make stock. The two bags usually contain around 6-8 cups of scraps.

Place the frozen veggie scraps into a large saucepan and cover with cold water. If any of the veggies are large, cut them into smaller pieces so that more surface area is in contact with the water.

Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for around an hour.

Taste the mixture and season as necessary with salt and pepper. Strain the veggies out of the liquid. I usually do this by spooning small amounts of veggies into a strainer and letting the liquid strain.

Let the liquid cool and then freeze it. You can freeze it in ice-cube trays for small amounts or ziploc bags for larger amounts.

Enjoy making delicious soup with your homemade stock

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