No Fail Vegetable Stock Recipe - Going Zero Waste (2024)

FAQs

Is making vegetable stock wasteful? ›

By making your own stock from scraps, you'll save money by using the bits of veggies that you might otherwise discard – plus you know exactly what's gone into your stock.

Um, as you're cooking with stock, the the vegetable, the vegetables will release the nutrients and the flavor into the water and what you're left, um, what you're left to it is just kind of a mushy vegetable. It doesn't have a lot of taste.

Save those vegetables that may have lost their crunchy appeal for a flavorful veggie stock. Even if stored properly, celery and carrots may become floppy after some time, but don't let them go to the compost. Throw in your onion skins, potato peels, and other veggie scraps from cooking to add more flavor to the mix!

Cruciferous veggies: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, or kale – these can make your broth become bitter. Green bell peppers (and possibly other colors of peppers, as well): these can make your broth become bitter. Especially avoid using the inside white pith of the pepper.

▶ Cabbage. Cabbage is too strong for stock and broth and can add a bitter taste. ▶ Collard greens. Collards are too strong for stock and broth and can add a bitter taste.

To avoid a cloudy stock do not stir while it is cooking because the impurities will get trapped in the liquid. Replenish liquid as needed if it evaporates but avoid diluting the flavor and body of the stock. Simmer the stock gently – never allow it to boil.

MISTAKE #1: TOO HOT IN HERE

The hotter you cook the stock, the faster you convert collagen into gelatin. Cooking low and slow gives you good conversion while preventing fat, minerals and other gunk from emulsifying into your stock. Boiled stock will be cloudy, greasy and have a lower yield.

Add carrots, leeks, garlic, tomato, apple, parsley, bay leaves, basil, peppercorns, salt, dulse flakes and water. Bring to a gentle boil. Turn down to a simmer cover with a with a lid slightly vented for an hour. Let cool.

Steer clear of any member of the brassica family; broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage among others. These will ruin your stock with a sulphurous and bitter flavour. Softer vegetables such as potatoes or pumpkin are no good as they break down too easily, creating a cloudy stock.

Answer: Always leave in the onion skins because the onion skins will render a lovely color. So if you're using yellow onions, the yellow skin will give a beautiful color. If you're using Bermuda or red onions as we like to call them, it will deepen and give it a a rich, robust, robust red color.

How can you tell if homemade vegetable stock is bad? ›

Be a little nosy

Therefore, one of the best ways to tell if you need to toss out your stock is by smelling it. The expired broth will smell unmistakably sour.

Stock is generally made from bones, and broth is generally made from flesh. In both cases, they are often supported with aromatic vegetables, but in the case of stock, left unseasoned for maximum flexibility in recipes, whereas broth will usually contain at least salt and pepper.

The Role of Acid in Making Stock

The acid products used are generally one or another of the following: Tomato: Brown stocks use some sort of tomato product, usually tomato paste, which also adds color and flavor to the stock.

Cabbage also can impart a overwhelming bitterness. Potatoes can cloud a stock from their starchiness, so they are not good when you want clear stock for something like a soup or consomme. Onion skins add a deeper flavor, but yellow or red skins can change the color of a light colored stock dramatically.

Consider adding other vegetables and herbs to the stock, like mushrooms, eggplant, asparagus trimmings, corn cobs, fennel stalks and trimmings, bell peppers, pea pods, chard stems and leaves, celery root trimmings, potato parings, marjoram stems and leaves, and basil stems and leaves.

NEVER BOIL STOCK

Allowing the water to boil will dissolve the impurities you're supposed to be skimming back into the stock, muddying its clarity and flavor. Not only that, but the energetic movement of the water will actually break minute pieces of your ingredients off and cast them adrift, further clouding things.