Home made vegetable stock/broth should be an essential item in the plant-based kitchen, really in any kitchen, focused on health and wellness. It’s filled with minerals including potassium and magnesium as well as trace minerals. I use it in soups, sauces, Sweet Potato Noodle Pho and cook my kids rice in it as well as my millet, instead of water. Let’s be honest, it will go a lot faster if you forgo roasting the veggies and just throw them in the pot but the flavor of roasted vegetables does add depth and richness to the broth. Below is the basic ingredient guideline to follow but I often make a broth with whatever I have in the fridge, saving scraps including onion skin, and peels from carrots or sweet potatoes in lieu of those items hitting the compost or garbage bin. Want not waste not. I may add broccoli, cauliflower and mushroom stems I have saved as well. Refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for six months.

Makes 7-8 cups / Prep time 20 minutes / Cooking time 1 hour 20 minutes

Gather

2 large yellow onions with skins on cut into quarters

2 carrots cut into bite size rounds

2 celery ribs with leaves on cut into bite size pieces

6 garlic cloves smashed

1 medium sweet potato with skin on, cut into bite size pieces

2 leeks cut into small strips and washed to remove dirt. White parts and a small amount of green parts, eyeball it

2 fennel bulbs, reserve fronds, cut into 6 pieces

1/4 cup/ about 59ml olive oil

2 cups/ about 473ml of water plus 8 cups about 1,892 ml

4 bay leaves

6 sprigs fresh thyme or 6 teaspoons about 25 grams dry thyme 

15 sprigs fresh Italian parsley

14 black whole peppercorns

Make

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

Place first seven ingredients into a large roasting pan. Pour the oil onto the vegetables and mix well till vegetables are coated.

Place the pan in the oven and roast uncovered for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Transfer the vegetables to a large stockpot. Add 2 cups of water to the roasting pan and scrape up any bits of vegetables sticking to the pan with a wooden spoon. Transfer the liquid to the stockpot. Add the bay leaves, thyme, parsley and peppercorns to the pot. Also add the reserved fennel fronds to the pot. Add 8 cups of water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, adjust the lid to leave a small crack and simmer for 40 minutes.

Allow to cool and strain the vegetables through a fine mesh strainer and store in glass jars.

Recipe developed by Anna Getty of Amalgam Kitchen.

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