Vegetable Broth

[TheNewMexican]

Been awhile and it popped into my head to check the forum toniight. Just like comfort food this place hits the spot!

Well, my wife came across a pinterest post with regard to saving vegetable scraps (onion peal, carrot tops, bell pepper cores, etc.) in a ziplock in the freezer and making vegetable broth. We figured what the heck. After accumulating enough vegetable odds and ends we covered with water and simmered until a nice broth appeared. We've been using it for soups and meat roasts. It's been great! Some batches the broth is very dark, other times a pretty amber. Still getting a feel for content vs quality.


Anyone else making their own broth? What's your process? What is the content?

 

[WildBoar]

We make a lot of chicken and beef stocks, and an occasional vegetable stock. My wife tends to throw things into a pressure cooker without too much planning/ prep; beef bones, maybe a hunk of beef, 1/2 a chicken, etc., usually with some coarse chopped carrots, onions and celery, and bay leaf or two, and maybe some peppercorns. For chicken stock I prefer making it in a pot (vs pressure cooker), and I pretty just add the same things that she does. For beef stock, I prefer to brown the beef (or roast the bones) first to deepen the flavor a bit, and then go the pressure cooker route. I also stick with the pressure cooker for vegetable stock; I may brown or roast some of the vegetables first, but usually not.

For me, most of the 'magic' happens when you build the soup or sauce that uses the stock. That is where we add other ingredients that round things out much better.

 

[jimbob]

Literally just polished off a bowl of bone broth soup asianified... fish sauce, soy sauce, tamarind, chili, scallion etc. talk about satisfying!

 

[LifeByA1000Cuts]

Experimented with it.

Interesting: The broth you get from (probably even pressure) cooking the hell out of beansprouts (suggested in a chinese cookbook). Very subtle, but there IS something there.

Don't bother: pressure cooking normal vegetable broth. Bitter and dulled.

In-between I often do: Throwing all the hard ends in the broth pot when making asparagus risotto.

What I find interesting is soups that "auto-broth" - eg coconut milk based soups like tom kha hed (without paste, just let the aromatics and mushrooms infuse it) or various squash soups ....

 

[panda]

leek, scallion, onion, shallot, garlic, mushroom, parsnip, tomato, fennel, dried white beans, corn husks+cobb, kombu, roast half of it with some butter and olive oil, use the other half raw into pot of cold water. add a sachet of bay leaves oregano mustard seeds peppercorns chili flakes