Ingredients

Veggie scraps!

This could be frozen vegetables that have gone icy, fresh veggies and herbs that are past their prime, stems from kale and broccoli, celery or carrot leaves, peels from cleaned carrots… as long as your vegetables have not gone bad, moldy, or been freezer burnt, they are great for this broth.

I highly recommend keeping a container or freezer bag in your freezer where you can add vegetables and herbs that you aren’t able to get to in their prime, and freeze them to use in this stock later. You can also add peels and cut-offs from when you are prepping vegetables for other dishes, just make sure that they are washed clean with bad spots removed.

I would not add things like onion roots or pepper stems, as these areas can be more difficult to clean and can add a bitter flavour to your broth. Food that has been freezer burnt is also an indication that it has gone off, and adds a hay-like flavour that it not appetizing.

Method

1. Wash and chop any fresh vegetables/fresh vegetable scraps that you may be using for this broth. Pull out any veggie scraps that you have been saving in the freezer.
2. Add all of your veggie scraps into a large pot.
3. Fill pot with water, leaving 1-2 inches room at the top of the pot.
4. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil.
5. Turn burner to low and simmer for 4-8 hours, the longer the better. You want your broth to be simmering during this time, so adjust your burner around the low mark to the point where your broth is at a simmer – not boiling but not still. This may be the lowest temperature on your stove, or a bit above low.
6. Pour the broth through a fine mesh sieve to remove veggies.
7. Add broth to your favourite recipes, or cool then store in the fridge (up to 1 week) or freezer (up to 6 months) for your next recipe.

Notes:

1. If using a mix of colours of vegetables, this broth is often a rich brown colour. However, you can create more colourful broths by using single colours of veggies. For example, using scrap spinach, broccoli and kale stems, herbs, and other green veggie scraps can create a rich green vegetable broth. Using red peppers, carrots, ginger, pumpkin or sweet potato scraps will produce a more golden broth.
2. Garlic makes a great addition to soups, but I prefer the flavour when added fresh to a recipe rather than cooking in down into the broth. If you want to preserve garlic before it goes off, you can always freeze minced/crushed garlic into cubes (as is or with oil) to use for your recipe alongside your broth.