With the nights closing in and the weather seeming to just get worse and worse we’re definitely in the time of year when I was to eat lots of soups, stews and casseroles. That means I use a lot more stock than usual, and of course it has to be vegetable stock since I’ve vegan, but I find a lot of store bought ones way too salty, so I’ve been making my own since last year and I’m finally going to share how I do it with you!
I start out with whatever vegetables I’m going to be using for my meal, wash them, peel and top and tail them, slice my ginger and crush the garlic and throw the lot into a pan of simmering water. Then I get whatever extra bits I have in the freezer!
Any time I have leftover vegetables that can’t be eaten, like peels and roots and that, I throw them in a bag in the freezer to pull out when I make my stock and it really helps to make sure your stock is packed full of flavour and nutrients, plus it means you sometimes have enough to make stock without having to chop or peel anything!
Then you just want to simmer your stock on a medium heat for pretty much as long as you want. I tend to start the stock around two hours before I want to make my stew or whatever I’m making and that’s usually a good amount of time.
And then you have your vegetable stock! It’s really simple, low effort and great to have a stock that’s completely natural with no extreme salty flavour or ingredients that you have to google to have any clue what they are. It’s a great stock for anything from stew, which is my go to, to pasta sauces or even broth for ramen.
If you try this out, let me know what you think!
-Dana
Carry on Beautiful! 