Harvest Vegetable Broth from Scraps
Homemade vegetable broth is easy, quick–and better tasting than many commercial varieties. You can even make it from carrot ends and other scraps!
Yesterday I did a little shopping. And I was shocked. There was fall décor everywhere. How did we get so near to summer’s end?
Yet the signs are there. I even did a “school starts soon” brunch with some of my classmates.
While I decided that I’m going to repress all of this for now, I did do something distinctly fall-like the other day. I made vegetable broth, entirely from scraps out of my CSA box!
As I looked in to a refrigerator overflowing with bright, fresh CSA veggies, I realized I could make some space just by “pre-harvesting” parts that would get thrown away. Things like parsley stems, uber small carrots/carrot ends and scallion greens. There was even a dried-out bunch of thyme.
Now a vegetable broth is nice for summer because it doesn’t have to simmer for hours–unlike a meat broth where you are (usually) trying to extract minerals from the bones. Even on a hot day, an hour of light simmering won’t do too much damage to an overheated kitchen.
Of course, your fridge may hold different veggies so feel free to switch up the ingredient list. The one caution I have is to go none-to-light on cruciferous vegetables—things like broccoli, cauliflower, etc. They can make your broth taste and smell cabbage-y and that’s probably not the result you are going for.
In the end I was delighted with my broth and it felt good to pop it in the freezer for fall. Because today I’m going out to enjoy the summer some more!
Harvest Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
- 1 cup carrot ends or carrots too small for other recipes
- 1 cup scallion or leek green ends
- 1 cup coarsely chopped celery leaves
- 1 large bunch parsley stems
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 bunch dried up fresh herbs such as thyme optional
- 6 peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- 7 cups water
Instructions
- Combine ingredients in a large saucepan or stockpot. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until flavorful, about 1 hour. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.
- Strain broth and discard (or better yet, compost) the vegetables. Use broth within a couple days or freeze.
Notes
Nutrition
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Great idea. I like David’s idea about freezing the scraps as well!
Wasn’t that a great idea–good thing I have lots of Pyrex!
Whenever I have scraps – onion skins, carrots and celery bits, parsley stems, mushroom stems, and so on – I freeze them in large containers and then use them to make broth as needed. Sort of like yours but a slightly different method. Why would you buy canned or boxed broth when you can make it – and it tastes so much better!
That’s a great idea David! I do it with bones/meat scraps but never thought of freezing veggie scraps!