Food waste costs The United States $165 billion each year whether due to food left on the field or tossing food at home. One easy way to eat down the fridge and eliminate even more food waste is to tackle recipes like homemade veggie broth, which uses a number of veggie scraps that would otherwise be thrown away. The best part about this recipe is you can toss in herbs and any veggie you have on hand—minus veg like broccoli and cauliflower—into the broth for a fragrant, salty base for soups and more.
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One Pot Vegetable Stock
Description
Stop throwing away perfectly good food scraps by making this catchall vegetarian-friendly broth.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 large onions, skin on, roughly chopped
- 3–4 carrots, trimmed, roughly chopped
- 1 head of celery, roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2–3 cups cleaned vegetable scraps (but omit foods in the Brassica family like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage)
- 1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 12 cups water
Instructions
- In a large pot, add cooking oil and bring to medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper. Cook for 6-9 minutes or until vegetables start to brown.
- Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Add additional vegetable scraps and herbs. Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes until the herbs become aromatic.
- Add water and increase heat to medium-high. When it starts to boil, reduce heat to low, cover, then simmer for an hour.
- Remove lid and stir. If desired, add more salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
- Use a large mesh strainer or cheese cloth to strain the contents into large glass jars for storage. Allow to cool completely before transferring to the fridge. Store refrigerated for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Comments (11)
This broth is delicious! I made it then used it to make a pear and leek soup. I freeze my veggie scraps in a zip-lock bag so they can be incorporated in a recipe like this! This recipe was on point.
★★★★★
What kinds of “cleaned vegetable scraps” are appropriate? I’ve seen recipes calling for peelings from potatoes, turnips, and other root vegetables, as well as greens such as beet or radish tops.
Any suggestions?
Hi Kate, great question! All of the above work well. Scraps can mean everything from roots to tops to peels to any leftover bits and pieces you would otherwise throw away. So you’re correct that potato peels, carrot tops, and more would work well here.
I save anything and everything, end pieces of all vegetables, peelings, leaves of root vegetables, skins of squash, onions and garlic, leaves of celery, the core of the broccoli and cauliflower, you name it, it all gets boiled down. I save the bones and skins of poultry as well for bone broth. Pretty much anything the would have gone in the trash. After boiling it down, you can compost it.
Sounds great! It seems sensible to omit Brassica from the scraps part of this recipe, but I’m curious if you can tell me why exactly?
Hi Chadwick, great question! Brassica-type veggies can make the broth cloudy and bitter tasting when you want a salty, savory broth.
Can you still use the veggies (onions, celery, carrots) used in that broth or do you throw it away? How would you use them?
Hi Lina, great question! After you’ve drained the broth, you will still have some scraps left. After you’ve used them in your both, they’ll probably lose most of their nutrition and flavor, so it’s best to add them to your compost pile.
Please clarify “veggie scraps”. Are you talking about more than the peels or root ends? Thanks!
Hi Colette, good question! Scraps can mean everything from roots to tops to peels to any leftover bits and pieces you would otherwise throw away. So, if you recently diced and onion and had some leftover ends, you can use those. Plus, potato peels, carrot tops, and more would work well here.
I’ve got my baggie in the freezer! Can’t wait to fill it up and make my broth!