Homemade Vegetable Stock

I have been making my own chicken stock for a long time. But since I have been buying almost no meat over the last couple months, I have been making vegetable stock instead. Now I know that most cookbook recipes call for whole onions, carrots, celery, etc, but I just can’t bring myself to use whole anything for stock when we could eat those whole things. So I’ve started to freeze scraps and make stock that way. With the amount of cooking that I do, I can make 3-4 quarts every week or so. I use it for lentil-kale-potato soup, risotto, and/or freeze it. The best thing about making your own vegetable stock is that it’s practically free! Here’s the run-down:

Freeze ends and peels of:

onion
garlic
scallions
carrot
celery
pepper
zucchini
parsley
cilantro
spinach
tomato

I’ve been using the same produce bag (the kinds you find in any grocery store) for a couple months now – it hasn’t ripped yet! Once it’s full, I throw all the scraps in a pot, fill it with water, add a tablespoon or so of salt, some pepper, and a teaspoon or so each of dried thyme and dried rosemary. I bring it to a boil, then simmer for 2-3 hours.