My method for making vegetable stock from scraps, plus a favourite winter soup, packed with seasonal vegetables, perfect for warming up a freezing night
I am so excited to start saving my scraps for vegetable stock. I suppose I can begin freezing my beef and chicken bones for some good hearty bone broth too! Thank you for that inspiration🫶
Great ideas! I'm not the cook in the kitchen-- I'm the one in charge of sorting the trash; in Italy, that's a very complex operation. You just made my life so much easier!
That was lazy typing on my part; I understand it is simmering. I make stock similarly to this - random veggie scraps, and after just over an hour of low simmering things are getting mushy, even the largest hunks of broccoli stalk and cauliflower cores. I just can't imagine much useful is happening after that stage in terms of extracting more flavour.....
I'm very intrigued, since my instinct originally was also to simmer for a long time. But it seems that the consensus for veggie stocks tends to be around an hour or slightly more.
Nik Sharma has an interesting approach where he soaks shitake mushrooms at around 70C for a period of time before adding them. Apparently that temperature maximises the activity of an umami-producing enzyme, so you are able to extra maximum savoury flavour from a small amount of mushroom. Whether you can really taste the difference, I am not certain though..... ;)
Indeed! I also like the idea of browning some/all of the larger vegetables before making the stock (or in the early stages, in the same pan, brown them without using oil, but without burning them ;) ). This can add some extra tasty flavours too, but perhaps not suitable for all types of veggie stock.
ahah! I know! I divide my scraps among my chickens, the compost bin in the garden and the stock bag! The thing is, we eat so many vegetables during the week that is is easy to fill up the veggie bag quickly
I’m terrible at using scraps. I’m a clean-as-you-go cook and I just can’t seem to get into the habit of saving them as I get dinner going, as much as I know I should. Thanks for the inspiration!
that's another important quality, something I have learnt after years of cooking classes. I used to leave all my dirty pots and pans aside for "later", now I couldn't do it!
I have a compost bin and up until now, I added all my scraps to it. I'll still continue to do this as I like
the rich soil produced. However, when there's snow and ice on the ground, I don't have easy access to my bin and now I'll freeze these scraps to use for vegetable broth. Thank you.
Thank you for explaining your stock-making, Giulia. I hadn’t thought to collect everything in the freezer that way. Do you have tips on the best way to process the big boxes of winter produce from our CSA? I often end up with more than I know what fo do with and don’t want to be wasteful.
Thank you, Mary! What I usually do is to process first bulky things that wouldn't fit in the fridge: think about bags of spinach, or artichokes... So I clean, cook, and stash these veggies into airtight containers in the fridge for the following days, and they become part of my prep cooking. Otherwise, if they are really too much and I know I'm not going to eat them, I cook and freeze what can be frozen and eat first what is most perishable.
Somehow I missed this letter. Most of my scraps go to the chickens but I make chicken broth in the instant pot almost every two weeks. One whole chicken with carrots, celery leaves and all, onions, mushrooms, salt, bay leaf, Rosemary sprigs, thyme and pepper, apple cider vinegar and some chicken feet for gelatin. I use the meat for chicken soup or chicken salad and skin and fat to the dogs. It is nice to have on hand for recipes and just to drink warm out of a mug. Filled with vitamins.
Do you use your asparagus trimmings for anything? We were just talking about whether the woody stems would be any use last night, and L and I decided we’d ask you--and then here is this perfect post to ask in!
Oh yes! I have to confess I just started last year, but with the asparagus trimmings I made - guess what! - a stock to use in an asparagus risotto. I boiled them for about one hour with an a quarter of an onion, a piece of carrot and a celery stalk, then filtered everything. It enhances the asparagus flavor in the risotto, just delicious! I bet you can use it also in a spring soup, maybe with asparagus and peas.
It really depends on how woody they are. If cooking them for one hour to make the stock softens them, I usually puree them and pass them through a sieve (to remove the fibrous parts). Then, you can use that puree in the risotto, in a soup, or even to make a dip, maybe mixing it with some cheese/beans
I so relate to the Italian waste-not ethic! I have been doing something like this for a while now because I just hate to throw vegetable scraps away. I love the idea of adding a Parmesan rind for more umami, then cubing it to eat afterwards. I also sometimes throw some of my frozen veggie scraps in with a chicken carcass when I’m making a quick chicken stock for soup. Unfortunately my scraps are less varied than yours because my husband is a picky eater and I cook mostly for him!
I am so excited to start saving my scraps for vegetable stock. I suppose I can begin freezing my beef and chicken bones for some good hearty bone broth too! Thank you for that inspiration🫶
Oh yes, absolutely! Same principle, same outstanding results
Great ideas! I'm not the cook in the kitchen-- I'm the one in charge of sorting the trash; in Italy, that's a very complex operation. You just made my life so much easier!
The Romans need your assistance 😉
ah! you have the most precious, valuable, important job! It's such a gruesome job, you have my respect!
3 hours seems like a very long time for boiling a veggie stock. They are pretty mushy after about an hour.....
It's not boiling, it is simmering on the lowest flame, so at the end the scraps are not mushy, as you can see from the photo.
That was lazy typing on my part; I understand it is simmering. I make stock similarly to this - random veggie scraps, and after just over an hour of low simmering things are getting mushy, even the largest hunks of broccoli stalk and cauliflower cores. I just can't imagine much useful is happening after that stage in terms of extracting more flavour.....
Probably it is the large amount of water I start with. Next time I'll try reducing the simmering time and I'll taste/test it! :)
I'm very intrigued, since my instinct originally was also to simmer for a long time. But it seems that the consensus for veggie stocks tends to be around an hour or slightly more.
Nik Sharma has an interesting approach where he soaks shitake mushrooms at around 70C for a period of time before adding them. Apparently that temperature maximises the activity of an umami-producing enzyme, so you are able to extra maximum savoury flavour from a small amount of mushroom. Whether you can really taste the difference, I am not certain though..... ;)
So fascinating! Imagine how many variants behind such a simple, basic recipe as a veggie stock made from scraps!
Indeed! I also like the idea of browning some/all of the larger vegetables before making the stock (or in the early stages, in the same pan, brown them without using oil, but without burning them ;) ). This can add some extra tasty flavours too, but perhaps not suitable for all types of veggie stock.
That's also what we do in my house! We put vegetable scraps and chicken bones in a large pot to make stock. We call it compost soup haha.
Chicken bones are such a precious ingredient, too!
You gave me some great tips for the stock, Thanks
I'm happy to have given you a bit of kitchen inspiration!
I get it, but I also also know that our chickens love the previous day's vegetable scraps that I take to them in the morning.
ahah! I know! I divide my scraps among my chickens, the compost bin in the garden and the stock bag! The thing is, we eat so many vegetables during the week that is is easy to fill up the veggie bag quickly
Ah, so that's the solution: eat more veg!
Always!
I’m terrible at using scraps. I’m a clean-as-you-go cook and I just can’t seem to get into the habit of saving them as I get dinner going, as much as I know I should. Thanks for the inspiration!
that's another important quality, something I have learnt after years of cooking classes. I used to leave all my dirty pots and pans aside for "later", now I couldn't do it!
I have a compost bin and up until now, I added all my scraps to it. I'll still continue to do this as I like
the rich soil produced. However, when there's snow and ice on the ground, I don't have easy access to my bin and now I'll freeze these scraps to use for vegetable broth. Thank you.
I usually divide my scraps among the compost bin, my chickens, and the veggie bag! :D there's enough for everyone!
Great tips. Thank you.
Thank you for explaining your stock-making, Giulia. I hadn’t thought to collect everything in the freezer that way. Do you have tips on the best way to process the big boxes of winter produce from our CSA? I often end up with more than I know what fo do with and don’t want to be wasteful.
Thank you, Mary! What I usually do is to process first bulky things that wouldn't fit in the fridge: think about bags of spinach, or artichokes... So I clean, cook, and stash these veggies into airtight containers in the fridge for the following days, and they become part of my prep cooking. Otherwise, if they are really too much and I know I'm not going to eat them, I cook and freeze what can be frozen and eat first what is most perishable.
Thank you - this is helpful! I have so much spinach every week, and some other Tuscan greens that are quite foreign to this Canadian.
Is it the Tuscan kale? if so, you can find many recipes in my blog archive, plus the soup linked in this post!
Somehow I missed this letter. Most of my scraps go to the chickens but I make chicken broth in the instant pot almost every two weeks. One whole chicken with carrots, celery leaves and all, onions, mushrooms, salt, bay leaf, Rosemary sprigs, thyme and pepper, apple cider vinegar and some chicken feet for gelatin. I use the meat for chicken soup or chicken salad and skin and fat to the dogs. It is nice to have on hand for recipes and just to drink warm out of a mug. Filled with vitamins.
I can imagine the smell and full flavor of your chicken broth, warming and delicious!
I need to be better at using my scraps!
Do you use your asparagus trimmings for anything? We were just talking about whether the woody stems would be any use last night, and L and I decided we’d ask you--and then here is this perfect post to ask in!
Oh yes! I have to confess I just started last year, but with the asparagus trimmings I made - guess what! - a stock to use in an asparagus risotto. I boiled them for about one hour with an a quarter of an onion, a piece of carrot and a celery stalk, then filtered everything. It enhances the asparagus flavor in the risotto, just delicious! I bet you can use it also in a spring soup, maybe with asparagus and peas.
Excellent ideas! But you would just make brith with them, not use them, for instance, in a puréed soup right?
It really depends on how woody they are. If cooking them for one hour to make the stock softens them, I usually puree them and pass them through a sieve (to remove the fibrous parts). Then, you can use that puree in the risotto, in a soup, or even to make a dip, maybe mixing it with some cheese/beans
Really lovely ideas. Thank you!!
great tips, thank you. I've got a bag going now with carrot peelings from today...
Fabulous! I also love the fact that the stock is never the same, as my scraps are always different!
I so relate to the Italian waste-not ethic! I have been doing something like this for a while now because I just hate to throw vegetable scraps away. I love the idea of adding a Parmesan rind for more umami, then cubing it to eat afterwards. I also sometimes throw some of my frozen veggie scraps in with a chicken carcass when I’m making a quick chicken stock for soup. Unfortunately my scraps are less varied than yours because my husband is a picky eater and I cook mostly for him!
As long as there are the basic veggies - for me celery, onion, carrots and some parsley stalks - you have an outstanding stock!
Agreed!🤗