Homemade Vegetable Stock
Homemade Vegetable Stock From Vegetable Scraps
Food waste is a global problem! Did you know that around 45% of the world’s fruit and vegetables go to waste each year? Global food waste accounts for approximately 8% of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Here in Australia, according to Foodbank Victoria, the average Australian household sends approximately 4.9 kilograms of food waste to landfill each week. We use 1,460 gigalitres (1,460 billion litres) of water to grow the Australian produce that is thrown out annually.
By using vegetable scraps from your kitchen, you can make a tasty stock without any added costs. It gives you a chance to extract further value from the vegetables scraps that would either go into landfill or, better still, compost. It’s really that simple! This simple stock forms the basis of many of my family’s favourite recipes. We use stock to cook risotto, stews and soups.
Until this year, I was too lazy to make my own stock and bought cartons of Campbell’s Real Chicken Liquid Stock, Vegetable Liquid Stock and/or Australia’s Own Chicken Style Stock (Vegan). Once I started making my own stock, I realised that it really is super easy. I will always have an emergency carton of stock in our pantry but with such an easy recipe in my repertoire, my first choice is to make my own stock.
What you need
To start, you will need a large enough plastic container that can be used to store the vegetable scraps in the freezer. For my purposes, I use a 2L Sistema plastic container to store my vegetable scraps.
Every time I have some vegetable scraps, I just add it into the container and keep it in the freezer until the container is filled. Once the container is filled, I take it out and make myself some stock. It takes me somewhere between 1-2 weeks to fill the container.
Vegetables to use when making stock:
Carrots - tops, bottoms and carrot peels
Onions - skins and ends
Leek
Garlic - smash a couple of cloves including the skin
Spring onions
Celery
Kale stems
Mushroom stems
Make sure you wash the vegetable scraps before storing it in the container otherwise you will be eating the dirt.
Vegetables to avoid when making stock:
Potatoes and turnips - as they tend to make the stock cloudy
Beets - as they will change the colour of the stock
Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage - too strong and give the stock a bitter taste
Seasoning:
2 dried bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorn
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 tsp salt flakes
How to make vegetable stock
Take the container out of the freezer and place the vegetable scraps into a stock pot
Fill the pot with cold water until it’s just covering the vegetable scraps
Make sure you add the peppercorn, bay leaves and fresh thymes into the pot. You can leave out the salt, but I normally add the salt at this stage.
Bring the water to boil then lower the heat, cover the pot and let it simmer for at least an hour. If you have the time, I would let it simmer for 2 hours.
Use a slotted spoon to pick up the large vegetable pieces from the pot and discard. Then carefully strain the stock using a fine weaved colander to filter out the smaller pieces of vegetables and spices.
Use the stock immediately or let it cool completely before storing it into an airtight container.
How to store the vegetable stock
Once the stock has cooled down, you can store the stock in either of the following containers:
Ice cube trays - great for storage of stock in tablespoon increments
Glass container - I reuse old Passata jars or you can get some mason jars
Plastic containers - I tend to use a 1.5L container. This is a good size for when I use the stock to make my dumpling soups.
This recipe makes up to 10 cups of stock. The stock can be stored in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.