Too Easy: Homemade Vegetable Stock

This isn’t a recipe that looks pretty, or cool, but it’s a necessity!

It’s always good to have stock around, and it’s even better if it’s homemade! I’m super fond of my homemade chicken stock recipe, but sometimes that just doesn’t work in all scenarios. This is an awesome, totally vegan, totally delicious stock recipe that is crazy simple to make.

I find that store-bought veggie stocks usually lack any sort of flavor or depth, but this homemade version tastes so good that you could seriously plop in some noodles and slurp up a bowl of it!

This is also one of those recipes where you can just throw in whatever veggies you have in your kitchen (hence the “Too Easy” tag!). It’s a great fridge clean-out thing because you can throw in the slightly wilted herbs or sort of old, bendy carrots that you may not want to use for anything else. Um, does “bendy carrots” even make sense to anyone else? You know, like the carrots that have been in your fridge maybe a week too long and they become super flexible and almost don’t snap when you bed them… Or am I the only weird-o who forgets about half the stuff in her fridge? ANYWAY, you get the idea… Any veggies or herbs in your fridge can be added, this is just the stuff I used this time. Parsnips and fennel are two vegetables that would lend awesome flavor!

You know what makes scrubbing carrots an adorable task? When your vegetable brush is a carrot with googly eyes 😀

You also may notice that my stock is kinda dark—that’s due to the red onion that I used. It’s pigment seeps into the broth. It doesn’t make the flavor any different, but you may find teh color unappealing. If you have a white or yellow onion, you can use that for a lighter stock, but I just used what I had on hand (it’s all about cleaning out the fridge and not buying stuff!).

I like to add porcini powder to my veggie stock, because I think it lends a deep, rich, complex note. If you don’t have that on hand, throw in some cremini mushrooms, or even better—a couple dried mushrooms! If you do wanna go out and get (or order) some porcini powder, you should know it will make a killer risotto add-in!

Oh, and feel free to change up the herbs in your stock—marjoram and rosemary would be lovely additions or substitutions. I find that a combination of at least three makes the most flavorful stock, but use what you have!