Basic Vegetable Stock

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 1.5 hours

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While we can buy ready-made stock, there is something great about making your own. You can adjust the flavour to suit you (many stocks taste only of salt!) and it’s a great opportunity to use up some veggie scraps (getting all you can out of each part of the veg!).

So I bet you’re wondering what we can tell you about a vegetable stock that you haven’t heard before? Yes, it’s just vegetables and water, but here are a few tips to help you make a killer stock:

• Carrots, celery, and onion are the foundation of a good stock
• Don’t throw your vegetables in whole, cut them into smaller chunks to increase the surface area in contact with the water
• No need to peel the vegetables. Even the skins of the onion will add some extra flavour
• Option to roast the vegetables first or brown in the pan
• Use mushrooms or a parmesan rind for a pleasant umami taste
• Start with cold water!
• Longer isn’t necessarily better – an hour or two is all you need to create a great veggie stock
• Keep vegetable scraps in the freezer to add to your stock, such as celery leaves and onion skins. However, avoid using potatoes or any other high-starch veg (they make the stock cloudy) or brassicas, such as cabbage or broccoli, zucchini or leafy greens (they will make the stock bitter)
• Use hardy herbs such as parsley, bay, thyme or sage and whole peppercorns to round out the flavour

Our recipe below is a rough guide – feel free to experiment. This version yielded us around 2 litres of stock.

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Ingredients

• 4 - carrots
• 2 - onions
• 3 - celery stalks
• 2 - small fennel bulb
• 1 - red capsicum
• 200g - mixed mushrooms
• 1 - thumb sized knob of ginger
• 1 - small handful parsley stalks
• 1tbsp - olive oil
• 5 - sage leaves
• 1tsp - whole peppercorns

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