Eating fresh food not only opens up a world of new meals to
make, but I also find myself wasting less of the food by trying to use every
last bite I can get out of an ingredient. I get that cooking may not be on
everyone’s ‘passion’ list but some things really are more simple to make from
scratch than making boxed macaroni and ‘cheese’. (Gag. Excuse me.)
I use veggie stock a lot in my meals for many reasons. Yes, I
have plenty of boxed stock on hand but I also make my own quite a bit. Because
I already use the basics on a regular basis (onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms,
and friends) I wind up with little end pieces here and there that aren’t used
in the main meal itself but seem like a waste to throw away.
For those little bits, I keep a bag in the freezer where I
throw pieces in over time. When the bag fills up, it’s stock time!
Let’s cover
the steps needed in this horribly daunting task:
Throw bits into a bag, located in freezer.
Because I assume you were going to throw these into a trash
bag or some container *anyway*, I’m not even going to count this as a step.
- Remove
bag from freezer, dump in pot
- Cover
with water to tops of veggies
- Simmer
for one hour. Possibly go get your nails done in the meantime
- Let
cool and strain liquid into appropriate container
Add salt, bay leaves, thyme or whatever else you want if you’d
like it seasoned differently. It’s all optional (though I do at the very least
recommend the salt).
Use in: rice, sautéed veggies, thinning out pesto for pasta,
etc.
“But you still wind up with the chunks of veggies, except
cooked!”
If you’re a hot kitchen mess like me, then you throw all the
leftover cooked bits into your homemade marinara sauce as your ‘secret ingredient’. Best
marinara sauce EVER.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnddddd……you’rewelcomeverymuch.
UPDATE: If you have bought your veggies from a grocery store, ***MAKE SURE*** to remove ALL stickers applied BEFORE cooking. Sometimes one sneaks by the best of us :(
