Veggie Scraps Broth
What do you do with your veggie scraps? Do you compost or is there a green bin program in your area? Before you let them go, let those scraps work for you – they are valuable and useful! I make broth out of mine! The broth comes in so handy during the week to make the best soup, to stir fry or sauté veggies and meat, to add to pasta sauces… so many uses! And it’s super easy to make too – just put your collected veggie scraps in a large pot, fill with water until the veggies are covered, simmer for an hour or two (depending on how much time you have), strain and bottle. Done! All the vitamins and mineral benefits of the veggies are in the broth to boost your nutritional content of what you are cooking!
As always, when you make this recipe, I would love to see your creation so please post a photo of your Veggie Scraps Broth goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 5 Minutes / Makes: varies, depending on how much veggies and water you make your broth with.
Ingredients
Collected veggie scraps during a week or two – carrot peelings, sweet and brown potato peelings, celery top and bottom cut-offs, asparagus snaps, cauliflower leaves, broccoli end bits, spinach stalks, corn cobs, zucchini ends, mushroom stalks, pepper ends, onion skins and end bits, garlic skin and end bits, green bean trimmings, lettuce, beet greens… any veggie you are using in your meals work great! I add any veggie scraps I am cooking!
How It’s Made
In a clean plastic bag, ziplock bag or a sealable bowl with a lid, collect your veggie scraps. You can keep them in the fridge if you collect enough and are going to make your broth within a week or two (otherwise the scraps go bad) or keep them in the freezer and add to them as you cook.
When your bag or bowl is full, you are ready to make your broth! Add the scraps to a large pot (either a stock pot that has a strainer that fits inside it or a regular large pot) and fill it with water to cover the veggies. The veggies will float to the top and that’s ok.
Bring the pot to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce the heat to medium low and let the pot actively simmer. I let my broth simmer for 2 hours but an hour is enough too. The longer you simmer, the richer the broth will be in taste. Even after 2 hours it is a delicate lovely flavour so don’t think it will be too strong simmering it longer.
Remove from the heat after simmering and let the pot cool so it’s easy to handle.
You will now strain the veggies out. If you have a pot with a strainer, lift the strainer out and shake the strainer to get the broth goodness out. If you don’t have a pot with a strainer, place another pot in the sink, put a strainer/colander on top and pour the veggie scraps and broths into the strainer/colander. Shake the strainer to get all the broth out. Compost, green bin or discard your spent veggies.
Bottle your broth and label it so you know what it is and when you made it. (Mine looks like my kombucha, and the same mason type jars… so labeling is important for me!)
If you won’t use the broth within a week or two, freeze some in ice cube trays, then pop them out and put in a ziplock bag to add to your meals as you need them.
Enjoy!
Stock Pot with a fitted strainer.
