Vegetable Stock

bluemoon downunder's Note:

This is the stock used in a recipe I have just posted for Cashew and Leek Soup. It has been adapted from a book which I found today and just HAD TO BUY - 'Green: modern vegetarian recipes' by Australian cook Flip Shelton. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but all the recipes in the book sound wonderfully healthy; and this recipe is really quite different from the other vegetable stock recipes already posted. If you are wanting to make your own vegetable stock, you may want to combine the ideas here with another recipe. It's just that it could take a while to gather together the ingredients! As Flip says "It's so easy to make your own stock - plus it's a great way to use up things like vegetable peel (other than potato), carrot tops and bottoms, onion skins and the skinny inner stalks of celery. Start by saving well-washed vegetable peel in a plastic bag in the freezer. Keep adding to the bag until you have enough" to make this recipe. She doesn't mention making this in a crockpot, but this is where I'll be making it once I've got into the habit of saving the required ingredients!

• Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 2 litres ...

• vegetable peels , well-washed, enough to fill a large stockpot (10-litre)
• 2 liters water , enough to cover the vegetables
• 1 bay leaf
• peppercorn

Directions:

1. Place the vegetables in the stockpot, add 2 litres of water, a bay leaf and some peppercorns, and simmer, covered, over a low heat for 1-2 hours.
2. Strain and freeze in small portions (about 1 cup/8 fluid ounces).
3. If you run out of stock, use water, and add a teaspoonful of soy sauce, miso paste or Vegemite, and a bayleaf.

Reviews

[Robpendragon]

Simple, good & smart! I made the mistake of buying a large quantity of store brand frozen veggies on sale & after the wife & I tried them we were extremely disappointed, I got them at a great price but they were terrible...I was stuck with bags of them. I was going to throw them out but I searched out Veg stock & found this! Thank you! After cooling I measure out 1 cup & poor into ice cube trays & I am set anytime I need to make rice or my famous chili.

[MUFFYW]

Thank you for posting this. I would have never thought to save what I call "veggie waste". I saved zucchini ends, carrot tops and peels, yellow onion skins and tops and bottoms, same with green onions, celery leaves and tops and bottoms. I even added veggies that were "sort of" starting to rot. I soaked everything in cold water, swishing it around to make sure it was all very well cleaned. Ran it through a coliander and then put it all in a huge stockpot, filled with water. Added 2 bayleaves and about 15 turns of my peppercorn grinder. Brought it all to a boil and then simmer it for 2 hours. Last 30 minutes I did about 3-4 turns of my sea salt grinder. I used it in place of chicken broth, adding a few cubes of chicken bouillon and it turned out fantastic. thank you!!!

[littlemafia]

It's going to be hard remembering to save up for this stock. After being used to throwing it away for so long it might take awhile to get the habit. I used celery root,carrot,onions and I even found a dried orange pepper in my fridge. So mine was a bit orange colored. I'll make this again and I can't wait for the summer and the big variety of veggies. Thanks for sharing. Taste even better the second day.