Mega thrifty home made vegetable stock

Home made vegetable stock

A good stock is the basis of so many great recipes. But did you know you can make the best and thriftiest home made vegetable stock from the bits of your veg you would usually throw away?

Home made vegetable stock is so easy and means that you can use all the trimmings and peelings from your veg that might go in the compost, food waste bin or even in your trash. It is a way to take every last bit of goodness from your food, as many of the vitamins are directly under the skin.

I don’t always peel my veg but when I do, rather than put the peelings and trimmings in the compost bin as I used to do I put them in an old ice cream container in the freezer. Once I have a couple of containers full, it is time to make the stock. Really anything will do, but I don’t use the peel from onions as they are bitter.

Method

All you need to do is place your vegetable peelings into a large saucepan with a large onion chopped in half. a stick of celery sliced in two, 10 or so black peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves. Just cover with water and bring to the boil. Add a teaspoon or two of salt.  Cover and simmer for two hours.

When your home made vegetable stock is cool, strain it and discard the vegetable matter in your food waste bin or wormery, if you are lucky enough to have one.

I use it to make soup usually and have a batch ready for some pumpkin soup once now that we have finished with our Halloween lantern. It has a great flavour already so will add to the soup. Do you make home made vegetable stock from your trimmings?

For more of my frugal food ideas, see my Favourite Frugal Recipes page.