Compost Veggie Stock

Foodies, environmentalists and cheapskates unite! If you've had a recipe that called for vegetable stock and wondered why you're paying 2-4 dollars on mass produced store brand vegetable stock from a box? Or have you ever stared at your compost wondering if you could stretch those delicious vegetable even further before turning it into worm and plant food?

No?! Hmm guess I am a weird one. Oh well... I still think this is neat trick that allows you to triple the usefulness of one humble kitchen vegetable. With this recipe and composting you can use one vegetable to:

1. snack on or use normally in a recipe
2. make this vegetable stock out of its remains (seeds, peels, skins, etc)
3. add to your compost, your neighbor's compost or your local community garden's compost.

I have to admit I am no expert on vegetable stock and have only tried it in its pure a few times when I was using a store bought box for a recipe, but I heard about this idea and wanted to try it. The end result was certainly similar to the box type and certainly had that good earthy/vegetabley quality to it. It wasn't bitter, sour or sweet. As I have never had supremely high quality stock it is hard to compare. I imagine if you used good, fresh, seasonal vegetables you'd get a stronger, better flavor. I would say though for the cost and overall thriftiness of this recipe I would not want to use any other stock for most everyday uses!

Notes about this recipe: I wasn't able to provide exact measurements for almost anything in this recipe because of nature of using leftovers vegetable scraps so don't concern yourself too much about the amounts. They key is collect scraps and keep them in gallon size freezer bags in your freezer. I think this happens naturally for all of us, but use a variety of scraps. If you use too many of one kind you might get a very strong color or taste in your stock rather than the generic vegetable stock we're looking for.

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Compost Veggie Stock

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: Approximately 90 minutes Yields: Varies

Ingredients (for one full gallon bag of vegetable scraps)

• Aproximately 1/2 gallon worth of Various fresh vegetables, roughly chopped large
  (I highly recommend using no fewer than 3 vegetables to give yourself enough of a variety. Whatever is cheap and/or seasonal might be best. I used tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, celery and carrot)
• 1 cup Onion, chopped (or to your own taste)
• 1/2 cup cloves of Garlic (or to your own taste)
• 1-2 tablespoons Olive oil (or enough to lightly coat vegetables)
• 1 gallon Vegetable scraps (keep in stock pot morning or night before you prepare the stock to allow it to thaw)
• 4-5 stems of Parsley
• 4 stems of Basil
• 2 teaspoons, dried Thyme or 2 tablespoons fresh Thyme
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 cup of white wine

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Fill a roastings pan with fresh vegetables, garlic and onions. Coat with olive oil.
3. Roast in oven for about 45 minutes or until vegetables begin to brown. Stir vegetables approximately ever 15 minutes

4. Dump your roast vegetables into the stock pot with your thawed scraps. Add herbs enough water to cover everything. Stir until it's all mixed together
   
5. Bring to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. If any foam accumulates on top, use a skimmer to remove
6. Add wine and simmer for another 30 minutes.
   
7. Strain through a fine mesh trainer or cheese cloth into a clean container.
   
8. If you're not using immediately, store in fridge in air tight container for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Freezing suggestion

1. Strain again into a measuring cup to remove any remaining bits
   
2. Pour 2 cups into a quart sized freezer bag.
   
3. Repeat until all the stock you won't be using immediately has been strained and stored in freezer bags
4. Seal bags pushing as much air out as possible
5. Store overnight in fridge
6. Open bags and push as much air out as possible before resealing
7. Store in freezer until needed

Freezing them this way will help prevent ice crystals from forming. You can store in different amounts, but I like 2 cups so you can be flexible when a recipe calls for vegetable stock. If you happen to have a recipe that calls for an odd number the most you might end up wasting is 1 cup of stock this way.