How to Make Vegetable Stock

This hearty stock belongs in every freezer. So here goes! It’s easy:

To make an economical vegetable stock for use in soup or gravy, start by bagging and freezing washed vegetable peelings as well as fresh and leftover vegetable ends - an amount large enough to eventually fill a stock pot 3/4 full. This isn’t something home cooks can collect all at once. Save and freeze those peelings and leftover bits as you prepare the day’s meals. After awhile, this will become automatic. 

I don’t collect cauliflower, broccoli, avocado, or bell pepper leavings, but keep and collect just about everything else. Naturally, you can use entirely fresh vegetables in stock: My preference for the ends and peelings comes about not only because I’m a penny-pincher, but because I've peeked into restaurant kitchens, watching souf-chefs make stock from exactly those parts. 

I most definitely use fresh (or commercially frozen) vegetables to make soup, but don’t use fresh vegetables to make the stock itself. Collecting and freezing vegetable leavings is integral to making beef, poultry, lamb, and fish stocks, too. The veggie method’s the same because vegetables add the depth of flavor that using meat, poultry, or fish alone will not deliver. 

When you feel you’ve stockpiled enough vegetables to make stock, dump them into your stockpot, top them with water, season with salt, and bring it to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, cover the pot, reducing the heat to simmer. Cover and simmer 2-to-2-1/2 hr., with a toothpick balanced between lid and pot to release some steam and concentrate the stock. 

Cool stock to room temperature. Strain liquid, discarding vegetable bits and peelings into your recycling food bin or garden compost pile. For absolutely clear stock, strain liquid a second or third time through layers of cheesecloth. Package; label; freeze until required. Taste for seasoning when the soup or gravy you eventually make is almost done.

Vegetable stock is an inexpensive start to many fine homemade soups. Keeping some in the freezer is a very good idea.

For other basic stock recipes, see One Click: Stock.