How to Make Homemade Vegetable Stock
Homemade stock recipes are one of those essentials that you need to have on hand if you're planning on cooking a variety of recipes entirely from scratch. Now, we're not suggesting you should grow all the vegetables in your garden and then make homemade stock, but you could totally go that route also.
If you want to cook from scratch because you don't like all of the preservatives that are in food, learning how to make homemade vegetable stock is a great place to start. Making chicken stock is something you'll want to try out too if you enjoy the taste of chicken broth.
We use homemade stock in tons of recipes from Zuppa Toscana to Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.
Eating a whole foods diet is full of healthy benefits, and one of the most important things is that in addition to all the healthy nutrients that you get from food make from whole foods, you also reduce your exposure to the additives that are in most packaged food.
Not to say that you can't buy vegetable stock that doesn't have many preservatives, because you can, but sometimes it feels so much better (and tastes better) knowing where your food is coming from.
Once you make your own vegetable stock, you won’t want to ever buy it again. It’s so quick and easy to make, and it is a great way to use up all those fresh herbs and vegetables you didn’t get around to using. Simply freeze whatever portion you don’t use right away, and then pull it out whenever you want to make a quick soup, stew or slow cooker meal.
Tip: As you cook your regular meals, skip the compost bin and store leftover edible vegetable scraps in a freezer-safe bag. Use frozen vegetable scraps whenever you make a new batch of stock.
Add a good olive oil to a large stockpot and heat over medium-high heat. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery to heated olive oil and sauté for 5 or 6 minutes, or until the flavor is released.
Add enough water to cover the vegetables, followed by thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, parsley and peppercorns. Heat mixture over medium-high heat until it just about boils, and then reduce heat to medium-low. Give it a quick stir and simmer, uncovered, for about an hour. (The exact amount of time doesn’t matter – the longer it simmers, the better the flavor will be).
Place a stainless steel colander over a large pot in the sink. Carefully pour contents of stockpot into the colander to separate out the solids from the liquid. Discard solids and allow liquid to cool completely before transferring to freezer safe-storage containers. If you do much freezer cooking, you'll want to stock up on these containers.
Freeze until ready to use.
Recipe
Homemade Vegetable Stock
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 large onions peeled and cut into chunks
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
- 3 large carrots cut into chunks
- 3 stalks celery cut into chunks
- water to cover
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 handful whole fresh parsley
- small handful whole peppercorns
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large stockpot and heat over medium-high heat. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery to heated olive oil and sauté for 5 or 6 minutes, or until the flavor is released.
- Add enough water to cover the vegetables, followed by thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, parsley and peppercorns. Heat mixture over medium-high heat until it just about boils, and then reduce heat to medium-low. Give it a quick stir and simmer, uncovered, for about an hour. (The exact amount of time doesn’t matter – the longer it simmers, the better the flavor will be).
- Place a stainless steel colander over a large pot in the sink. Carefully pour contents of stockpot into the colander to separate out the solids from the liquid. Discard solids and allow liquid to cool completely before transferring to freezer safe-storage containers. Freeze until ready to use.
Nutrition
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