Vegetable Stock and Unexpected Soup

It turns out I am not so great at being home sick for a day. I don't do well sitting around doing nothing, so I decided to make vegetable stock. I've been making quite a bit of soup lately and most call or vegetable or chicken stock. I wanted to try making my own instead of reconstituting what looks like an herbed mould of golden jello (but really). So here we go...

Vegetable Stock

Makes 4-5 cups

1 large onion, chopped, keep skins
2 carrots, sliced
1/4 lb parsnips, sliced
3 celery stalks including tops, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced, keep skins
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
2 tsp peppercorns
2 Tbs olive oil
7-8 cups water

Optional: Any additional vegetables and/or vegetable leftover bits you have. I used the chopped off ends of zucchini, extra carrot peelings, and asparagus ends.

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and add all vegetable, excluding tomatoes, herbs, salt/pepper, and onion/garlic skins. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until vegetables start to brown slightly.

Add the tomatoes, herbs, and salt and pepper. Continue to saute in oil for a couple minutes.

Add garlic and onion skins with the water. Depending on how much extra veggies you throw in there, you may need to alter the amount of water.

Bring to a boil, then turn down, partially cover and simmer for an hour. Turn off heat and let cool for 10 minutes before straining vegetables. I found it useful to dump all the contents of the pot into a colander with a bowl underneath to capture the liquid. You're all set! What you get should be a golden-ish liquid that smells delicious. You can use directly, refrigerate for a couple days, or freeze to use later!

Vegetable Puree Soup

After straining all the vegetables, I realized I didn't just want to throw them away. That and I'm poor so I wanted to be able to use them. Make sure you remove all the onion/garlic skins or any other questionable bits out as best you can. Throw everything into a food processor with some of the vegetable stock you just made - may need to do so in a couple batches depending on how much stock you make. I decided to add some beans (some protein) to the mix, I would've used white northern beans but I only had chick peas available. Adding all that to a pot, you will need to add spices to give it some flavor. Most of the vegetable flavors will have been 'washed out' in the stock. I decided to use nutmeg, cinnamon, and turmeric. Since I made quite a bit of stock, I had quite a bit of soup. I also froze most of this.

Happy eating.

Koober Jr.