Not a Recipe: Stocking up on Homemade Broth

I have never been the type to stockpile food.  For one, we just don’t have room.  We are apartment dwellers with a tiny kitchen and almost no cupboard space.  Despite that, there are a few key things I always try to have on hand for fast meals with good flavor: dried beans, quality pasta, fresh parsley, canned coconut milk, Israeli couscous, bread crumbs and last but by no means least frozen homemade broth or stock.

There are few things in the world that rope in different ingredients and make them get along.  Broth is one of them.  It takes a special talent to play matchmaker in soup, stew, risotto, couscous, chili, curry and pasta.

Homemade broth vs broth from a can or carton is like the difference between a diamond and a cubic zirconia in terms of it’s ability to make your food sparkle.  Like so many things the key to good broth is time.  Time to steal flavor from vegetables and bones, time to condense that flavor, time to draw out nutrition, time to turn scraps of this and that into a new stand alone ingredient on it’s own.

I prefer to make my broths in a crock pot – no standing over the stove supervising for me.  It is one of the few appliances I have room for in our tiny kitchen, and it makes an appearance at least once a week.  The best part? I can set a timer for 10 hours on low, walk away and then come back and have the richest and most flavorful broth ever.

I don’t have an actual recipe for broth – each time it comes out a little different.  The guarantee? It is delicious with layers of flavor and layers of nutrition.

VEGETABLE BROTH: 

• Collect you Veggie Scraps in a gallon freezer bag until it is chock full.  After a day of meal prepping I generally have enough scraps to make a full batch of broth.  If I don’t (or don’t have time) then I pop the bag in the freezer and pull it out when I am ready.  By scraps I mean any combination of:
  • Carrot peels & ends
  • Celery trimmings – don’t forget the leaves
  • Tomato cores, seeds, skins
  • Onion/Garlic/Shallot skin & trimmings (onion skins are loaded with flavor and also give broth a lovely golden color)
  • Green Onion, Fennel, Green Bean, Parsley, Zucchini stems and ends
  • Green/Yellow/Red Pepper tops & cores
  • Cauliflower cores, Broccoli stems or scrapings
  • Corn cobs – but only one / pot – they can make broth too sweet if you use too many
  • Pea Pods
  • Mushroom Stems

 

• Optional: for richer veggie broth, Roast the Scraps in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes – again, it is all about nuances and layers of flavor.  Roasting adds both but is totally optional.  Sometimes I also add the tail end of some of my roasted veggies from meal prep for the same effect.  Mostly I skip this step, so feel free to skip it as well.

 

• Put the (fresh or frozen) Scraps into a large crock pot.  If you have them on hand, you can add any of these flavor enhancers below, if not just skip it and your broth will still be good – promise.
  • A clove or two of Garlic.  Don’t even bother to peel
  • Peppercorns – whole are perfect
  • Dried Mushrooms – these add that elusive ‘umami’ flavor.  I have a giant bag I have
  • Bay Leaves – vegetal and herbal notes in one lovely leaf.  Your life will change if you find some fresh bay leaves – FYI

 

• Kosher Salt the thing – about a teaspoon, although I’ve never measured.  I like to under-salt my broth.  If I over-salt a risotto, I have something to save it from the brink of being inedible.  If I am making soup with pre-roasted, pre-salted veggies I won’t end up with something that is heavy in saltiness when I add broth.  You get the idea.

 

• If you are making an anything-but-plain Vegetable Broth, pour Water over you crock-pot-o-scraps until it comes up to an about an inch below the top of the crock pot.  Put on the lid, cook it for 8-10 hours on low.  Veggie Broth heaven.  I like to set it to cook overnight and wake up to smells of comfort food waiting to be made.  This will make about 6-8 cups of broth.

CHICKEN or TURKEY BROTH:

I tend to make a roasted chicken about once a week. I love getting a whole chicken because I feel like I can get a solid 3-4 meals out of the results.  For example, with the last chicken we roasted we made a pan-sauce and ate the breast.  The drumsticks went into Greg’s lunch.  The leftover meat went into a chicken pot pie.  Finally, the bones will rise again zombie-like this broth.

• Add the Bones from one Roasted Chicken  or Turkey to that crock pot with your veggies.  A lot of times you can get the chicken backs from your butcher from when they break down whole chickens. Sometimes for free, but if not free, cheap.  Don’t bother roasting them, just toss them in the crockpot raw.

 

• Follow all the instructions for the veggie broth for add-ins, salt, etc.  Just like with the veggie broth, you’ll pour water into the crock pot until it comes to an inch or so below the rim.  Cover, and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours. Viola! The best chicken broth you will ever have.  I love to sip it out of a cup on cold mornings.

TO STORE:

Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer – get out everything from the whole celery stalks to the peppercorns.

Store in a glass jar for up to 1 week in the fridge, or freeze for up to 6 months.  I usually portion the broth out in 2 cup increments in quart freezer bags – just waiting to get tossed still frozen into whatever recipe I happen to have in the works.

-Lydia, lover and fighter