Vegetable Broth

SERVES:

makes approx. 8 cups broth

approx. cooking time 1 hour



INGREDIENTS:

approx. 1 cup rough chopped onion

approx. 1 cup rough chopped celery

approx. 1 cup rough chopped carrot

1 -2 crushed cloves of garlic

2 Tbs vegetable oil

approx. 6 - 7 cups vegetable scraps and peelings (see procedure)

1-2 bay leaves

5-6 black peppercorns

small bunch of thyme sprigs or a sprinkling of dried thyme

water as needed to cover vegetables



PROCEDURE:

Rough chop about 1 cup each of celery, carrot and onion and then saute them a bit in a little vegetable oil in the stock pot.

Add a crushed unpeeled clove of garlic to that and let those things cook along for 5 minutes or so.

Once they've caramelized a little bit you can add approx. 6 - 7 cups total of scraps and peelings of carrots, celery, onion skins, some parsley stems, green onion pieces (and even something like parsnip peelings if you have them), add a couple of bay leaves, a few black peppercorns and a small bunch of thyme sprigs (or a sprinkling of dried thyme), add some sliced tomato tops or canned diced tomatoes and some sliced mushrooms if you like and add a little handful of fresh parsley if you have it and then add about 8 - 10 cups of water and bring it up to a simmer.

Let that gently simmer along for 45 minutes to an hour.

At that point, place a large colander or mesh strainer into a large mixing bowl in sink and then carefully strain the stock through the colander.

Cool that down a bit in the bowl and then transfer it to a container to cool down completely in the fridge.



HINTS:

Use to make vegetarian soups and or brothy meals with pasta.

A handful of tomatoes and fresh mushrooms give this broth more color and depth of flavor.

Vegetable Broth