Find how to make a perfect homemade vegetable broth from fresh or frozen leftover vegetables. The vegetable broth, can be later frozen into desired portions and be used later to enhance the flavors of your next meals. Perfect for using it in soups, sauces, gravy, and a lot of other recipes.
I’m so excited to share with you this simple but delicious vegetable broth. It’s a must-have ingredient in your kitchen that you will often use as a base in soups, sauces, gravy, and a lot of other recipes. The broth will give an extra boost of flavor to your dish.
Sure, we can buy vegetable broth in almost every local store, but nothing compares with the fresh broth that you will make at home on your own.
The vegetable broth is one of those recipes that are very easy to make but the majority of us didn’t make it. At least not so often as we should do. Homemade vegetable broth is one of those “secret” ingredients that can completely change the taste of your dishes and give them a special flavor that will make a difference.
All you will need to make your own vegetable broth at home are a little bit of time and a few simple basic vegetables that you have on hand year-round.
Pro Tip: If you want to reduce even more the cost of broth, you can collect scraps in a freezer bag and when you will have enough vegetables, you can make a few cups of broth from them.
👉 What You Will Find in This Post?
- Why you should make your own homemade broth.
- How to reduce the cost of making a homemade vegetable broth.
- On what you should pay attention to.
- What vegetables you should use?
- How to get a richer taste and color from it.
- Tips on how to make it even better.
👩🍳 How to Make the Vegetable Broth?
- Cut the vegetables and caramelize them in the oven or air fryer.
- Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan and cover them with cold water.
- Boil the vegetables on low heat on a hob for one hour.
- Strain the broth and adjust it to salt to your taste.
- Store and use in your favorite meals.
🔖 Why You Should Make Your Own Broth?
You will be sure of the quality of the ingredients you are using. You can use any vegetable leftovers that will remain from other dishes (Keep them in the freezer and when you will have enough, make a delicious vegetable broth from them).
As you will make your own broth, you can control and adjust the taste. And the best part? You will save money! A good vegetable broth costs a little bit, and if you’re using vegetable broth in a lot of dishes, it will cost you a little bit at the end of the month.
🥰 Why You Will Love This Recipe?
- You can cook a large amount of broth and keep it in the freezer.
- This recipe doesn’t require a lot of attention from you. It cooks almost alone.
- You will get a vegetable broth with an intense taste suitable for any kind of food.
- The end result is a lot better in comparison with the store-bought vegetable broths.
🏆 Expert Tips. What to Pay Attention To?
- Caramelize the vegetables before cooking them. Because of that, you will get a soup with a more intense taste and deeper color.
- It is not necessary to use the most beautiful and fresh vegetables, this recipe is perfect for using vegetable leftovers that are a little dry after they have been refrigerated for too long.
- If you are not a vegetarian, add a crust of parmesan to the pan to boil. This little secret will raise the soup taste to another level.
- Portion the soup in containers and freeze. So, when you will need to use a delicious vegetable broth in your dishes, just take off one portion of broth from the freezer and you’re ready to go. You don’t need to prepare vegetable broth every time when you’re making a new dish.
🥘 Ingredients Needed for This Recipe?
So, what ingredients should we have in a good vegetable broth? Actually, there aren’t any rules. You can combine your favorite vegetables or just use the vegetable leftovers from the dishes that you prepared recently.
If I’m starting from scratch, then I usually start from the classics:
- Onions.
- Celery.
- Carrots.
- Fresh Garlic.
- Parsley. (You can add only the stalks, and to reserve the leaves for other recipes).
Then you can make it more personal by adding:
- Sprigs of thyme.
- Bay leaves.
- Leek tops (make sure to wash these well as they tend to trap a lot of sand).
- Red capsicum (bell peppers).
- Zucchini.
- Spring onions.
- Shallots.
- Rosemary.
- Fennel.
- Tomatoes.
- Basil.
- Dried or fresh mushrooms.
If you want to follow exactly my recipe, then today I used:
- Carrots.
- Onions.
- Celery Stalk.
- Celery Root.
- Hot Pepper.
- Parsley.
- Cloves Garlic.
- Coriander.
- A piece of Ginger.
- Dried Tomatoes.
- Parmesan peel.
- Mix of dehydrated vegetables.
🤫 The Secret of a Delicious Vegetable Broth?
The secret to a perfect vegetable broth is to not boil the broth. If you will want to obtain the best vegetable broth, start slowly at low heat. You should avoid boiling the vegetables too quickly. By doing so, you will break them down and you may get a bitter taste and a cloudier vegetable broth because the vegetables will decompose. We need to extract slowly the unique flavors from the vegetables.
After the vegetable broth will cool down, you can store it in jars in the fridge or in the freezer. I usually freeze mine into portions of 1 or 2 cups because I often need this amount when I cook something.
Here are a few ideas of what I did later using this recipe for the vegetable broth:
- Risotto Zafferano
- Creamy Soup of Leek
- Ukrainian Borscht Soup
- Nando’s Spicy Rice
- Creamy Pumpkin Risotto
👩🍳 Step-by-step Directions
Quick Note: If you will wash well all the vegetables, there is no need to peel them. You can use them even with the skin.
If you want to get the best results from your vegetable broth, I highly recommend you first of all to bake the vegetables in the oven. By doing that, the vegetables will caramelize and their flavors will accentuate. Also, in the end, the vegetable broth will have a more intense color.
To bake the vegetables in the oven, cut them into small pieces, put them in a single layer in a baking tray, and bake them under the grill. I used the stem and root of celery, onions, a few cloves of garlic, and two carrots.
You can also add parsnips if you have one.
Quick Note: Don’t sprinkle the baking tray or vegetables with oil. At this stage, we don’t want to fry them. All we need from them is just to intensify their taste.
When the vegetables will brown and in some places even burnt, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Quick Note: This process may vary in time depending on your oven and how it works. It can take from 15 to 30 minutes. Just check them from time to time.
You can also use an air fryer for this step, so you can speed up the cooking process even more.
Put the cooked vegetables in the large pan in which we will boil them. Over the baked vegetables, add parsley, coriander, a piece of ginger (about 1″), a whole hot pepper, dried tomatoes, and optionally a mix of dehydrated vegetables and a piece of parmesan peel.
Quick Note: Do not cut the chili pepper because you could a result that will be too spicy or just replace the hot pepper with sweet pepper.
Dried tomatoes and Parmesan are ingredients that contain the umami taste so they will take your soup to next level.
Pour cold water until the pan is full and let it to a boil over low heat. After the vegetables start to boil, let them boil for another hour.
Remove the vegetables from the soup and strain all the broth. At this stage, taste and adjust the salt to taste. Now, you got a perfect vegetable broth that is exactly to the taste of your family and that is perfect to use for any type of soup or food you prefer.
As a result, you will get vegetable broth that has an intense taste and a deep rich color that will make better dozens of times any meals in which you will use this vegetable broth.
♻️ Make Ahead, Storage, and Additional Questions:
What Is the Difference Between Vegetable Broth vs Stock?
In short, the vegetable broth is seasoned, while the broth stock is not.
How Long Does the Vegetable Broth Last in the Fridge?
After the vegetable broth has cooled down, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Can you Freeze the Vegetable Broth?
Yes! And you should freeze it! I recommend that you should cook this vegetable broth in larger quantities and freeze it in tightly closed containers where you can keep it for up to 6 months. That means that for the next half-year, you will always have at hand a perfect base for your favorite dishes.
What vegetables to avoid in the vegetable broth?
Try to avoid vegetables that are high in starch like are potatoes and turnips. If you will use them, you risk getting a gummy and cloudy vegetable. Beets have a strong flavor and may cover the taste of the rest of the ingredients. Zucchini and green beans may obtain a bitter taste during the boiling, so go safe and just omit those vegetables.
How to reduce the cost of Homemade Vegetable Broth?
Keep a zip bag in the freezer and when you have some vegetable odds and ends leftovers, put them into this zip bag. When you will accumulate enough, you can make a delicious homemade vegetable broth at almost no cost.
📋 Recipe Card:
Delicious Homemade Vegetable Broth
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 Carrot
- 2 Onion
- 1 Celery Stalk
- ½ cup Celery Root
- 1 Chili Pepper Flakes
- Parsley
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- Coriander
- Ginger about 1".
- 3 Sun-dried Tomatoes
- Parmesan
- 1 tablespoon Mix of dehydrated vegetables
Instructions
- Cut the vegetables and caramelize them in the oven for 15-30 minutes, or in the air fryer.2 Onion, 1 Celery Stalk, ½ cup Celery Root, 3 Cloves Garlic, 2 Carrot
- Put all the baked vegetables in a stockpot and add over them the parsley, coriander, a piece of ginger (about 1"), a whole hot pepper dried tomatoes, and optionally, a mix of dehydrated vegetables and a piece of parmesan peel.1 Chili Pepper Flakes, Parsley, Coriander, Ginger, 3 Sun-dried Tomatoes, Parmesan, 1 tablespoon Mix of dehydrated vegetables
- Cover everything with cold water and put the vegetables to boil.
- Start boiling the vegetables. When the water will start to boil, boil the vegetables for one hour.
- Strain the vegetable broth and adjust to salt taste
Quick Note
I highly recommend reading the entire recipe to find more tips and notes about this recipe. Read Full Recipe ⇑
Notes
- The amount of the used ingredients may vary in dependence on your taste and your vegetable leftovers. Feel free to change the ingredients and their amount to your taste.
Nutrition Estimates
Do you make your own vegetable broth? Share in the comments what are your best tips to make even better vegetable broth?
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