Veg Out...

I love making my own vegetable stock.  It makes my house smell delicious (not-chocolate-chip-cookie delicious, but ya know) and it's so much healthier than boxed or canned broths.  Most store-bought stocks are so full of sodium - some as much as 24% of the daily recommended allowance - that you should be able to feel your blood pressure rise with each sip.  But with your own stock, you control the salt; I use no more than a teaspoon. 

What makes it easy for me is that I cook a lot of vegetarian meals, and I save all of the vegetable scraps.  When I cut off the ends of onions, carrots, cerery, herbs, etc., I save them in a container in the freezer.  When I have a good amount, I pop them into a pot, add more fresh veggies and herbs, cover with water and just let it simmer for about an hour.  The result is remarkably different from what you buy off the shelf of your local grocer.  Just look at the color difference from my most recent batch.  The little bowl contains a boxed organic stock; the jars contain my homemade organic stock...

That rich color equals flavor!  I substitute water for stock when I cook rice, grains, pasta and soups.  It adds so much dimension and great taste to the final product.

Now one word of note...learn from my mistakes: NEVER put broccoli scraps in the stock.  That fibrous stalk that you normally cut off is the equivalent to a stink bomb going off in your kitchen.  The first time (and only time!) I added it to my stock, I walked into the kitchen and thought an animal had died in the walls somehow.  Big mistake.  Go ahead and throw the leftover broccoli in your compost.  If you stick to the veggies in my recipe - scraps or fresh - you will be just fine, and you won't have to evacuate the house...

Vegetable Stock

Ingredients

2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped

2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped

2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

1 medium leek, coarsely chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 large tomato, quartered

6 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bunch parsley

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon peppercorns

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 ½ quarts water

Put all of the ingredients in a stock pot.  Bring to a simmer and simmer for 1 hour.

Strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve and discard solids.

 Once cooled, stock can be frozen in 1 or 2 cup containers for future use.  When freezing, be sure to leave at least an inch of space at the top, as the stock will expand as it frteezes (especially important when using glass Ball jars, which I recommend).