Monday, February 9, 2009

veggie stock

hi all! now that i'm a mom i've been learning about the benefits of a slow cooker and have been making a lot of things in it. seems like a lot of recipes call for stock. i've been annoyed about the amount of sodium in stock/boullion so, i decided to make my own veggie stock for the first time a few weeks ago and it was great. it's great to keep on hand, it freezes well and it's uber cheap and easy to make.
here's how you do it...

veggie stock

keep the scraps of veggies you use, can be anything. i keep a gallon size ziploc in the fridge and just add peelings to it and when it gets pretty full i'm ready to make stock. i used carrot and potato peelings, bits of garlic, onion, celery ends, etc. make sure everything is washed. either rinse it all in a strainer or if you washed, for example your carrots before you peeled them then your peels are clean and you're ready to go.

throw them in a large soup pot with 8-10 cups of water.

add a bay leaf, some salt, pepper and any other seasonings that sound tasty to you.

bring to a boil.

simmer one hour.

let cool and strain out the veggie scraps.

now you have 8-10 cups of veggie stock to use. i poured some of mine into 2 cup containers and put it in the freezer so i can just pull it out to use as needed.

3 comments:

Andi said...

will you post some of your favorite slow cooker recipes?

amylew said...

Thanks for the veggie broth recipe - it seems like a great idea! I can't wait to save all my vegetable scrapes!

Every month I try to make chicken broth (boil a whole chicken, carrots, celery, onion) for the same reasons. Then I use the shredded chicken in recipes throughout the month and a whole chicken is pretty inexpensive.

I also love my slow cooker! I've been making steel cut oatmeal using the crock pot - It comes out really creamy. There are a lot of different recipes online, but basically you spray/butter the crock and put in 2 cups of oats and 6 cups of water. Sometimes I replace a cup of water with a cup of milk for the oatmeal to be extra creamy. Then turn it on low and let it cook while you sleep. You can add dried fruits, spices, sugar, etc before or after. Sometimes I double this recipe and have enough for the entire week. I just spoon some into a bowl and heat it up!

Pam said...

I always make chicken stock but have never thought to make veggie stock - thanks for the inspiration.