Like Mother, Like Daughter

Vegetable stock is so much cheaper to make at home, not to mention way tastier and healthier! Who wants to pay $6 a box for something filled to the brim with sodium?

Making your own vegetable stock is pretty simple. We like to keep a bag in the freezer with all the usable scraps from our veggies, which we’ll throw into the pot with regular veggies. You can throw in pretty much anything that is edible, like mushroom caps, parsley, the rough part of carrots, and any veggies that look like they are close to their expiration date.

If your fridge needs to be cleaned out, take the opportunity to make your own veggie stock! Or if you bought a big tray of delicious organic veggies for a party thinking that your guests would go for a healthy selection, but they stuck to the chips and salsa, use them up! Alternatively, buy the cheapest onions, carrots and celery you can find and add them to the pot with scraps.

Low Sodium Vegetable Stock

4 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound carrots, chopped
1/2 pound celery, chopped
24 cups water
2 tsp salt
Kitchen scraps (mushrooms, parsley, broccoli stems, parsnips, etc.)

1. Heat olive oil on medium setting in a very large pot. Saute onions for 4-5 minutes, then add carrots, celery and garlic and saute for an additional 4-5 minutes.
2. Add all your vegetable scraps and then add 24 cups of water.
3. Cook on high until it starts to boil, then lower heat to medium low and cook covered for two hours.
4. When it’s done, strain the stock over a sieve covered with two layers of cheesecloth.
5. Divide the mixture into 1 and 2 cup portions and freeze. Use as needed when a recipe calls for vegetable stock.