staple
8 Servings
- 1 gallon bag of frozen veggie scraps, completely full
- 13-15 C water
- 1 can diced tomatoes, or dice 2 fresh tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves (any tiny broken bits are fine, use 'em all)
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 T garlic, minced
- 1 T better than bouillon
- other fresh veggies, chopped
- other fresh herbs, whatever you have
For the frozen kitchen scraps, save all the "onion butts", ends of carrots, bits of cellery you were going to toss in the compost. Also good: mushroom stems, potato skins, stems from greens. Use broccoli and cauliflower only in moderation, they can make the broth bitter. Also avoid bitter greens. Too much of anything can take your broth weird places (like an entire bag of baby carrots might be something to think twice about).
Any fresh ingredients need a sauté. Start with the olive oil, then add any chopped onion you want to add, then the garlic, then any herbs or spices you want to add. After about 5 minutes, toss in the contents of the bag of frozen veggies. Add enough water to fully cover the veggies, but only until they just start to float (able to stir freely, but not swimming in a vast sea of water). Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then add enough water to fill the stock pot. Now the dirty secret: we're going to add some bouillon (either better than bouillon or regular ol' cubes). If you know your bouillon needs salt, add some, otherwise, have a taste and if it doesn't seem salty, add more salt. Try not to add too much salt, but, this is broth, it's supposed to be salty. Simmer the broth for about 30 minutes, up to an hour. Taste test at about 25 minutes, adjust for salt and pepper. Other great add-ins to consider: 1 T of Miso (any kind), and 1 T nutritional yeast.
Strain the broth from the solids, reserving the broth and composting the solids.
Store in the fridge in whatever containers you have; quart mason jars are great if you have plans to use the broth soon. If you're going to freeze it, use a plastic container that's safe for freezing. Keeps for up to a week in the fridge, and up to a year in the freezer.