Homemade Vegetable Stock
This is quite possibly my favorite culinary holiday each month! I save all the scraps, trimmings, peels and assorted pieces of discarded vegetables and store them in a zip top bag in the freezer. Except for lettuce (no value in that, plus it gets nasty and mushy when frozen) and potatoes-please don't use potatoes or their peels in this stock, they make it starchy, cloudy and muddy looking-gross! After making the stock, I pour it into ice cube trays, small containers and freezer bags. Then I store them in the freezer to be used as needed. Using homemade veggie stock is extremely rewarding, plus your house smells like veggie heaven when you make it. Using it adds such incredible flavor to a variety of soups, sauces, gravies, stews, meats and other vegetables. No need to use plain ol' boring water, use your homemade stock. Each batch has it's own flavor profile depending on what vegetables went into it. No matter what, it's always frugal and delicious! This can be made in a stock pot or an instant pot. Whichever is best for you. I'm personally enjoying the ease and time saving benefits of the instant pot lately.
Yield: 12 Cups
Calories: 10kcal
Cost: $1.00
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Measuring spoon
- Large bowl
- Ice cube trays
- Colander
- Cheeesecloth
- Ladle
- Containers For Storage or Freezing
Materials
- 12 Cups Assorted Frozen Vegetable Scraps-from a 1 gallon freezer bag
- 11 Cups Water-enough to cover the vegetable scraps
- 4 each Bay Leaves-I use the broken pieces of bay leaves
- 4 tbsp Minced Garlic
- 1 bunch Fresh thyme or a handful of dried thyme-stems & leaves
- 1 bunch Fresh parsley or a palm full of dried thyme-stems & leaves
Instructions
- Gather the ingredients and your instant pot
- Pour the bag of frozen vegetables into the instant pot
- Add enough water to cover the vegetables, but don't exceed the limit of the max fill line
- Add the bay leaves, garlic, thyme and parsley
- Place the lid on the instant pot and close the valve
- Set the time to cook at 90 minutes.
- Go do your thing while the instant pot does it's thing!
- When the cooking time is done, allow it to naturally release the steam-approximately 15 minutes
- Allow the stock to cool then place the pot with the entire contents into the fridge for the flavors to meld overnight
- Using a colander over a large bowl, strain the liquid from the solids
- Discard the cooked veggie scraps, compost or give to your pigs if you have them
- Using a cheesecloth or a couple layers of paper towels lining a colander, strain the liquid again to remove any remaining solids or residue. Hint: turn the cheesecloth with the seams outward and pour the liquid into the non-seam side. This makes it easier to clean the vegetable residue out of the cheesecloth afterwards.
- Straining the stock twice, removes all this undesirable residue
- Prepare ice cube trays, small containers and/or zip top freezer bags and label them with the date you made the stock.
- Ladle the beautiful clear, flavorful stock into the containers and ice cube trays.
- Helpful hint: by using a stemless wine glass, you can wrap the zip top bag around the top edge of the glass-this makes it much easier to ladle the liquid into the bag without spilling it.
- All ready to be used or frozen
- Place the veggie stock into the freezer until needed. Transfer frozen veggie stock cubes into a zip top freezer bag for ease and later uses. Be sure to add the date the stock was made to that bag as well. Helpful hint: placing the ice cube trays on a paper towel lined small baking sheet, makes it easier to transport the trays to the freezer-reducing spillage and clean-up.
- Enjoy!
Notes
This particular batch of stock contained all these vegetables...asparagus, tomatoes, green beans, peas, red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers, banana peppers, yellow squash, green cabbage, purple cabbage, chive stems, zucchini, cauliflower, red onions, corn cobs and carrots! So, if definitely has lots of flavors.
I use the container and bags of this stock as bases for soups, stews, beans, roasted chicken, turkey, beef, pork, mac and cheese and vegan roasts. I add cubes of stock to sauces and gravies for a boost of flavor. I've used it to sauté spinach and poach eggs. I also use when cooking vegetables instead of water. Yes folks, I am kind of obsessed with making and using vegetable stock!
I can't take all the credit for making this veggie stock, I was inspired many years ago to make my first batch of vegetable stock by finding and using the link below.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fohmyveggies.com%2Fhow-to-make-vegetable-broth-with-kitchen-scraps%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1QXg5iEOnrssv2W6-8RtcV0ItoNEOyjvIn-eewcf9Lt5sjiUJynTEre68&h=AT2ImSZA7seXUq4jjAHBsp2xbBFq1bFCPUphuyVFPN88DZDtbhe1kfjJ7JU7RN0wG0r4Lv4xc8mU9I85CV1mZsHMSNaiTf62seQAHYebharafW1P7-pCROGAu6zbpMkkxo01XoU41GkEeId0n-I&__tn__=-UK*F