Vegetable Stock

This is such an easy staple you can make and keep on hand and later on I'll be posting dark chicken stock as well.  Stocks are good to have around because they can add a depth and richness to otherwise bland foods.  Making stocks on your own is good because you can control the amount of salt that goes into them as well as controlling what/if any spices and herbs go in.  Basically, if you DIY this you can control the entire flavor and I like that.  This one is a vegetable stock, so its vegan and vegetarian-friendly (duh).

This is one of the easier things to keep on hand.  When I chop vegetables for another recipe, instead of throwing away any good parts or hearts I cut out, I just rinse them and stick them into a container in the freezer.  Once I have a few containers, I toss it all into a stock pot and boil it up.  Due to that, this stock was made with green and white vegetables because that's what I'd been cooking with mostly for the last week or two, but almost anything can go into this.  Sometimes you'll have green stock and sometimes you'll have tomato-based or carrot-y stock.  Just adds to the fun, really.  :)

I used roughly:

2/3 head of cabbage
4 stalks celery (mainly ends/parts I'd trimmed off, just not the leafy tips)
1 cauliflower heart (the inside chunky part I didn't use for the actual recipe I'd made with it)
3 green onions (what was left of the green parts and the white, too, I just peeled off the outside layer, washed them, and cut off the roots)
1/2 an onion's worth of chopped onion (frozen leftovers)
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup parsley
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp pepper
4 cloves garlic
salt to taste

I used two stock pots for this, but only photographed one.

Toss it all in the pot and then put just enough water to cover it all up.

Bring it to a boil and let it go for about one hour.  Covered or not, your choice.  Just add more water if it gets low if you leave it uncovered.

After about an hour, everything should be wilted and kind of questionable-looking.

At that point, you can strain it into another pot to get all the vegetables out of it.  If you have a cheesecloth or fine strainer to get all the herbs and such out, then that's good, too.  I don't.  Its no biggie to freeze it with the herbs in it.

Freeze it up in some ice cube trays, and there you have it!  Just pop however many cubes you need straight into your recipes or thaw before hand.  Cooking pasta, rice, or couscous in this stuff makes a world of difference.

Easy!

<3
The Wookie Wifey