Homemade Vegetable Broth
The one thing you do a lot of on a plant-based diet is chop vegetables. So naturally anyone wanting to save money on their food costs can look no further than their vegetable scraps. Making your own vegetable broth is easy, doesn’t cost anything, is salt-free and more flavorful than you’d ever think.
It’s as easy as throwing all your vegetable scraps, as you chop them up, into a freezer bag (be careful to remove those pesky produce stickers) and then when it is filled to the top (usually about two weeks or so) you can make a broth from those scraps.
The vegetables I usually have in my scraps bag are:
onion [ends and skins]
garlic [skins]
squash [ends]
carrot [peels and ends]
bell pepper [tops and seeds]
celery [ends]
any of the above that are way past their prime that I would normally toss
The only vegetables I would stay away from adding is cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli as those can make your broth a little more bitter. I usually add my kale stems and haven’t noticed any bitterness though.
A few simple steps was all it took:
Empty out the freezer bag full of produce “waste” into a giant stockpot.
Cover with filtered water.
Bring it to a boil, cover with a lid and reduce heat to a simmer.
Let simmer for 3 hours.
Let it cool down for about 30 minutes.
Strain into glass storage jars and keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.
After straining, I filled 3-33 oz jars almost completely full (those gold lidded jars in the back are from the Sam’s Club artichoke hearts - my favorite jars to hoard!). Now I have beautiful golden homemade vegetable broth ready for use and an empty bag to fill up!