I've noticed that several of the recipes I've made recently and several that I've browsed online have used vegetable stock as an ingredient. Rather than buying it at the store, I decided to try to make my own today. I looked around and found a wide variety of recipes. Some were simpler than others, but roasting the vegetables before boiling them sounded really good to me, so I went for it. Here's what I started with:
Roasted Vegetable Stock
Ingredients:
On the cutting board: 3 onions, 2 potatoes, 16 ounces white mushrooms, 6 carrots, 6 green onions, 1 leek, 1 ear of corn, 3 tomatoes, and 2 heads of garlic.
Also used but not pictured: 1 bunch of celery, ~1 Tablespoon peppercorns, 3 bay leaves, fresh thyme, fresh oregano, and fresh basil.
Directions:
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Scrub all vegetables thoroughly. Do not peel carrots or potatoes! Chop onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, leek (white and green parts), green onion (white and green parts), tomatoes, celery, and garlic into large pieces. Place all vegetables except for corn into roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. If desired, place corn directly on oven rack and roast for 30-45 minutes. Remove vegetables from oven. Chop corn into 3-4 pieces. Place all ingredients in large stockpot. Add water until all vegetables are covered, plus a little extra. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Strain out all vegetables and spices. For easy storage, fill 1 quart Ziploc™ bags with stock and place in freezer until ready to use. Makes ~8 cups.
Notes:
There is no salt in this recipe. I plan on adding salt when I use this in recipes. Feel free to experiment with different vegetables, but stay away from the following: cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. These vegetables will overwhelm the flavor of the stock.
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