Vegetable Broth

Vegetable broth in the making.

I know it seems odd to be talking about broth as summer is FINALLY arriving, but consider that summer is fresh veggie season and you'll likely be using a lot of them in the next few months. Even if you compost as a way to manage your organic waste, you can get even more from the remains of your fresh vegetables after peeling, trimming and paring.

There are tons of uses for vegetable broth all year long and I typically keep a couple of boxes of it on hand for sauces, soups and cooking rice or pasta when I want an extra flavor kick.

One day I was contemplating a ridiculous amount of peels, onion tops, shiitake stems, and broccoli stalks that were headed to my compost bin after I cooked a stir-fry; it was a bit overwhelming to see it all in one place. I decided to throw it all in a pot ans boil it down into a broth which I then froze in a plastic container.

Collect vegetable refuse and fill a pot

Onion skins, celery ends, carrot peels and ends, mshroom stems, throw them all in

Add some salt and cover with water

Cover and boil until the broth is a rich color and reduced by 1/3 to 1/2.

The next time I was cooking with fresh veggies, I didn't have enough unused parts to boil, so I threw what I had into a zipper bag and froze it. Every time I clean a vegetable, I add whatever parts I'm not using to the zipper bag in the freezer. When the bag gets full, I pour the contents into a stock pot, cover with water, add some salt, and cook covered until the liquid is rich in color and has been reduced by 1/3 to 1/2 its volume.

Once cooled, the broth gets strained and stored in freezer safe plastic containers.

THEN, I send the boiled, (volume greatly reduced) remains to the compost container.