A Tasty How-To: Vegetable Broth

One seriously random day, I started collecting and freezing the vegetable scraps. I'd cut zucchini and save the ends, peel a few carrots and keep the skins. You get the idea. Once I had a pretty full bag, it was time to make Vegetable Broth!


If you cook vegetables all of the time, like I do (pats back) start throwing your scraps in a large ziplock back OR (if you're thrifty) double bag 2 plastic bags from the grocery store. Reuse & recycle, folks! When you have a nice, full variation of veggies toss them into a large sauce pot. Use just enough water to cover the vegetables and turn the stove top on medium-high.

While your veggies are heating up, toss in 2-3 bay leaves, herbs, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and half a lemon (for flavor and fun). For the herbs, you can choose to add 3-4 fresh sprigs from the garden (thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, etc) or use 1 tablespoon of dried herbs. You can create your own mix from random cabinet occupants or go for an already made herb blend, like Herbs de Provence. Fun fact: My "go-to" in the Vegetable Broth department.

Let the vegetables and herbs come to a boil then turn your heat down to medium-low. The broth will cook down your previously frozen vegetables, extracting their flavor, along with the herbs into the water. I like to leave the broth on for 1-2 hours (depending on how much time I have). For example, a lazy Sunday is the best day to make your own broth! Let it simmer for three hours for a dark, flavorful broth.

The broth is ready when it becomes golden-brown in color. Strain the broth with a colander into a large bowl and let cool. Once your broth has cooled, you can divide it up into Tupperware containers and freeze for up to four months. I prefer to use 2-4 cup containers, as that's how much I usually use at a time. What you do not use, can be store in to refrigerator for up to a week. This usually makes about 8-10 cups of broth, but that of course depends on your vegetable collection.

I definitely hope you will all try this recipe as it is extremely easy to do and a great money-saver! Homemade vegetable broth is also a million times better for you and much tastier than the stuff you buy in the store. Try it and let me know your thoughts!

Uses for Vegetable Broth
Vegetable broth can be used for so many delicious dishes in the kitchen! I use mine to make soup; as a water substitute when cooking rice; sauteing greens; and much, much more - the sky's the limit! You can also turn your vegetable broth into chicken or beef broth by adding a chicken carcass from that leftover rotisserie chicken or leftover beef bones from last night's dinner to the cooking process. It's THAT easy!