DIY Vegetable Stock - guest blogger Maria Rainier

It’s cold cold cold outside, which means the time is right for homemade soup! Lose the canned stock (which is mostly MSG and other nasty things, anyway) and try this amazingly simple stock recipe from my guest, Maria Rainier — just leave out the bones if you’ve got vegetarians coming for dinner!

Stop before you toss those broccoli stalks and apple cores into the trash bin. Instead, stick them in a container in the freezer until you have enough scraps to boil in a pot to make your own vegetable stock.

For those of us who have given up supposedly “free range” commercial chicken stock, vegetable stock becomes a necessary staple in the kitchen. To save a little money and make use of onion peelings, wilted spinach, browned cauliflower, and other things you’d immediately toss into the compost, try your hand at making your own stock. You use the nutrients often found (but wasted) in roots, stalks, and leaves, and you get one more use out of something before they end up in a landfill or, preferably, your compost.

1. Keep the odds and ends from your cooking scraps. These include apples and pears but you might want to keep citrus out of your collection, since it does something funny to the overall taste of the stock (as do banana peels, fuzzy kiwis, and the like). To store them, put them in a bag or a big Stonyfield yogurt container in the freezer until you don’t think you can wait anymore.

2. If you have any chicken or beef bones to add to the mix, throw them in, too.

3. Save and freeze your egg shells with the scraps. They add calcium to your stock.

4. Obviously, avoid saving foods that have developed mold.

5. Once you’re ready to make your stock, chop up and add an onion, some garlic, a carrot, a healthy tablespoon of olive oil, and any herbs you like to ensure a full-bodied taste. Try oregano, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and even some dried sea kelp if you have some (they add a salty flavor without going overboard on the sodium).

6. Put scraps in a pot and add enough water to cover the contents. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once you hear the water rumbling, tone the heat down to a simmer for at least an hour. The longer it cooks, the tastier the stock will be, but keep in mind that the water may boil down too far if you keep at it for too long.

7. When you’re satisfied with the taste, pour it all through a fine wire colander. Put the refuse in the compost if you don’t think you can squeeze another batch of stock through it. If you’re feeling extra frugal and healthy, run the edible scraps through a blender (the “edible” scraps include broccoli and celery stalks, onions, carrots, and the like—but not certain skins, peelings, and certainly not egg shells). Add them to the liquid for a more robust and nutritious stock.

Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online degrees. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.