Reusing vegetable scraps

A few experienced cooks in our group - thank you Mitzi and Ayliffe - have introduced us to a new way to reuse our vegetable scraps by turning them into a delicious soup stock. This is especially great for us Michigan people in the winter, when every time we add scraps to our compost buckets we know that eventually we have to put on the high boots and track it back to our compost piles. Right now, the end of February here in Michigan, the boots will have to be pretty high to get us there without getting our legs snow covered. So any time I can keep the scraps inside for reuse is a bonus for me.


The recipe is so simple it boggles the mind that I have never come across it before. Basically, you take any clean vegetable scraps, like a broccoli trunk or carrot shavings, and put them in a gallon freezer bag. Once the bag is full, you take the frozen lump and put it in a stock pot and add 12 cups of water, 2 bay leaves and 12 peppercorns. Put it on your smallest burner and simmer about 2 hours, taking care not to let it boil. Then you pour this stock through a colander and into a large bowl, and then through a strainer. In a blender, mix a 28-oz can of stewed Roma tomatoes with a can of navy beans and some of the broth (I do this is 3 segments). Add this and the rest of the stock back to the pot, and you now have the best stock you've ever tasted. You can make this into vegetable soup - the recipe is on our Recipes page. This is a wonderful recipe to make on a cold winter day - the entire house smells fragrant. What's also interesting about this stock is that, because each bag is comprised of a unique set of scraps, it will never taste the same. This freezes well.


Ahhhh......