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If you haven’t been making your own homemade vegetable broth, now is the time to start! It’s easy, nutritious, practically free (if you’re using food scraps), and better for the environment. Even though we compost, I’m always looking for new exciting ways to utilize my food scraps. Making vegetable broth with food scraps is a classic and always timely way to get the most out of your veggies. In this post and video, I’ll show you how you can easily make a very simple vegetable broth, and a more bold mushroom seaweed broth. Both can be used in any recipe that calls for broth. I even like sipping on the mineral rich mushroom broth like a savory tea.
If I don’t make my own vegetable broth, I go through so many jars of Better Than Bouillon paste. I love that stuff so much, but even better is making your own broth. I keep a food storage container in my freezer and add scraps to it as I cook throughout the week. When that container gets full, it’s time to boil the scraps for broth. It’s really that simple! Boil, strain, and done.
Not every vegetable scrap is suitable for veggie broth, however. You want to stick to clean tops, bottoms, and peels from non-starchy veggies like onions, leeks, garlic, celery, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, and greens. Don’t plan on making veggie broth with the starchy bits from your potatoes and sweet potatoes. Compost those guys 😉
My favorite veggie broth is one that is made with plenty of mushroom bottoms. Mushrooms can be pricey, so I’m extra intentional about using every centimeter of this nutrient dense food. You can make a mushroom-only broth, or mix them with other veggie scraps. Get creative with your veggie broth mixes. You can even experiment with adding flavor boosters like tomato paste, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and dried herbs. But for now, I’m leaving you with two very simple and delicious recipes to get started. Let me know if you’d like to see more vegetable broth recipes in the comments below!
Mushroom Seaweed Broth | Money-Saving Homemade Vegetable Broth
Season this to taste with soy sauce if you’d like a salty broth. I tend to leave it unsalted because I usually add it straight into recipes. However, if I am using it as a sipping broth, I do like to add a little tamari soy sauce.
Ingredients
- 2 cups mushroom bottoms try to use more flavorful mushrooms like maitake, shiitake, & oyster
- 1-2 tbsp dulse seaweed flakes or 1 piece of whole dulse
- 1-2 pieces of wild wakame seaweed also called alaria
- 6-8 cups water
Instructions
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Combine the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.
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Immediately reduce the heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
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Allow it to cool, then use or store in glass containers.
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Simple Vegetable Broth | Money-Saving Homemade Vegetable Broth}
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups vegetable scraps
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 1-2 tsp dried thyme
- 8-10 cups water
Instructions
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Combine the ingredients in a large pot, and bring to a boil.
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Immediately reduce the heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
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Allow it to cool, then use or store in glass containers.
