A-B-C Easy Vegetable Broth

Make everything better, even your congestion.

Add x-y-z cups of water and boil for 1-2-3 minutes. Its a basic step in cooking savory sauces, gravies, vegetables, soups, rices, and more more more. Using broth in place of water makes a meal better than mom's.

Broth is just scraps. The ends/skins/cores/stems of veggies. That's it. The dark green end of leeks are my favorite broth ingredient. Leeks make pretty golden and slurping good broth. Onion and garlic skins are in second place, followed by peeled carrot skins and green or red pepper cores, and herb (rosemary, thyme, parsley, and sage) stems. After I finish chop chopping up vegetables for a meal I put the unsightly ends in a zip bag for the freezer. When its full, time for broth, free broth!

A-B-C Easy Vegetable Broth

1 gallon of water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
2-4 dark green ends of leeks, thoroughly rinsed and roughly chopped
ends and skins of onions, roughly chopped
skins of garlic
a few fresh herb stems and a few leaves (rosemary, thyme, parsley, and or sage)
other assorted vegetable parts (carrot, pepper, asparagus, tomato, corn cobs, spinach, mushrooms, yams, green beans, zucchini, eggplant, bring it on)

Put everything in a large thick pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours until vegetables are mushy. Cool for 30 minutes. Strain into another equally large pot. Push vegetables with the back of spoon to push the good broth flavors out.

Vegetable trash about to become golden broth.

Cool completely, divide into containers, and freeze. Keeps for about 6 months, and then starts to develop "freezer flavor." Some people say they like to put broth into ice cube trays and pop out a little at time. I only own one ice tray.

A few thoughts:
-- I don't add black pepper because it makes the broth look dingy.
-- Don't add much salt either. You don't want it to overpower what you cook with the broth.
-- Don't use gassy vegetables like cauliflower or cabbage, too strong.
-- The bottom inch or so of the broth may contain particles too fine to strain, and should be discarded.
-- Leeks may be dirty and gritty. After chopping, soak in a large bath of cool water. The sand falls to the bottom. I give this soaking water to my house plants. They appreciate the sand more than septic systems.
-- Meat broths are awesome! I love them, but they make my vegetarian friends and family upset. I don't often make them.