Broth by So Many Names
We all know how popular bone broth has become and I find it amusing that it has been made for centuries but been called by the protein of the bone; chicken, beef, pork, seafood and etc. I’ve been making chicken stock forever but when I heard of this new broth called bone broth I had to go google it to see what this new broth was all about and how come I was unaware of it.
Newsflash
Boy was I disappointed! Newsflash: the new exciting thing called bone broth… was stock made with the bones/carcass of an animal. I’ve been doing it for years. You know that country song that says I was country before country was cool. That’s me and bone broth.
Vegetable Broth
Now, I’m going to make you laugh right now or at least snicker. I’m not even writing about bone broth, no I want to talk to you about veggie broth. The funny thing to me is for as long as I’ve made bone broth I have never thought of making veggie broth, it wasn’t until I was looking for bouillon cubes and came across vegetable bouillon that I thought about why I never made fresh vegetable broth.
Simple and Oh So Good
The good thing about making vegetable broth is how simple it is. Whenever you have the peelings, ends, cores, and seeds of a vegetable save and put them into a gallon Ziploc baggie or something that you can throw into the fridge or freezer until it’s full and you are ready to start making broth. You ask how to know when it’s time to start your veggie broth? The answer is when the bag is full or you have time to put everything together.
Making of the Broth
You can do it two different ways, get out your large Dutch oven or your crockpot, dump veggie scraps into your choice of cooking vessel, and fill the pot with water. Bring to boil, bring heat down to simmer, cook all day, I usually let it go for 6-8 hours. Strain veggies out of broth, set veggies aside for your chickens or compost pile.
Managing the Broth
You can do many things with the broth. You can freeze it, can it or my favorite thing to do is pour it into some canning jars and keep in the fridge. When I make rice, couscous, mashed potatoes, soups or anything that needs water to make I use my vegetable broth to flavor that item. I go through the broth fast and am usually out and needing to make another batch in a week or so.
Let me know how your vegetable broth making goes.