Vegetable stock

After the last post on chicken stock, Sophia asked about vegetable stock, so here it is. This one is easy, and way faster, since you don't need to wait until you break down and extract the collagen from any bones.

You could start by sautéing or roasting the onion-like vegetables and carrots in a bit of oil for extra flavor, but I just boil everything together. I used four leeks, two onions, a couple of carrots I had left, six cloves of garlic (crushed), a couple of pieces of ginger, three pieces of clove, a branch of celery, parsley, three (small) fennel roots and 4-5 mushrooms for color. Don't use fresh small white mushrooms, they don't have much taste. Instead, use leftover mushrooms you haven't used and they've opened underneath, and the black seeds are visible. Or you can get them from the "old vegetables" section in the supermarket, much cheaper.

Another thing you can do for vegetable stock is use all kinds of leftovers from ordinary cooking. I have a plastic bag in the freezer, and I add anything I don't use when cooking: carrot and potato peels (wash the vegetables before peeling), stems from parsley, dill and other herbs, seeds from green peppers, etc. So, add your bag of frozen leftovers to the vegetables, put everything in the pot, cover with cold water, bring to a simmer and simmer for about 2 hours uncovered to reduce.

If you want to make vegetable soup, add also a potato, don't use peels or add anything non-edible, chop vegetables finely, and stop cooking after 30-45 minutes depending on quantity. This way, you'll have a tasty broth, and the vegetables won't have lost all flavor and texture. To thicken the soup mash the potato and add it back, or just use potato flakes, and optionally finish with milk. It's a very nice soup. Alternatively, without potato, just add shrimp during the last 10 minutes. Also a very nice soup.

For general-purpose broth, take all flavor out from the vegetables by boiling for another hour. Then let it cool, pass it through a cheesecloth on a sieve (or just a strainer, up to you) to get clear stock. Since I'd used the vegetable leftovers, I threw away the solids. I only salvaged the carrots, they were the only that were easy to separate without much hassle. More on what I did with the carrots in a future post. I bottled the stock in freezer-friendly plastic milk bottles. Again, no salt. My freezer is now packed with bottles of beef, chicken and vegetable stock.

This stock is really good for making risotto, or for substituting for milk in mashed potatoes when one doesn't eat dairy products. And of course, for soup.