Saturday, January 31, 2009

Vegetable Stock Recipe

Here is an easy way to make a vegetable stock. It is always great to use your own stock in homemade soups, rice, beans or lentils.



I like to do several cooking projects while I'm in the kitchen. It is just a more efficient use of my time. I decided to make some soup stock while preparing dinner. First, I caramelized some diced onion. You can use any type of oil.
Next, I used the leftover pieces of washed celery from my salad. Make sure to trim off the leaves from the celery...they have a bitter taste. I cut up a carrot, minced some garlic and added 8 cups of water. Later, I added the caramelized onion (sorry, forgot to take a picture). Start off cooking the stock at a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. You lose the nutritional value after an hour.
The finished product is the first picture in this post. You can store it in the freezer for later use. I'm putting mine in the refrigerator, and will use it in a recipe next week. Making your own stock is very easy to do, and very economical. Purchase onions in a bag...they are less expensive that way. I wash the carrot, gently scrubbing it but I don't scrape it.

4 comments:

Trish said...

I always use the greens from celery. I love the flavor!
Is it just that it simmers for so long that you feel it becomes bitter?
I only use the greens when I'm cooking something up quick. Haven't ever used them for longer duration cooking I don't think. Hmmm...intersting.

Sleepless In St. George said...

so then do i take the veggies out at the end? How is store bought stock? Do it have a ton of sodium or can you get it sodium free or light sodium? This looks like a great idea....I could use wilted and tired celery right? Thanks for the great tips!

Glenda said...

sleepless, You can take the vegetables out and chop them up and put back into the soup if you want. It just depends what you are wanting to use the stock for. The great thing about making your own stock is that you can use up "tired" veges lurking in your fridge, and you have control over what you put in it. I didn't add salt to my stock; I wait until I use it in a recipe, and then decide how much salt to use. Store bought stock can be pricey. Homemade stock is economical.

gluten Free A_Z Blog said...

I'm always looking for a good way to make vegetable stock. I never tried one with carmelized onions! I'll bet that taste great. The store bought are so high in salt. I am now a follower. I would love it if you visited my blog and followed me back at www.glutenfreewithjudee.blogspot.com