How to Make Your Own Vegetable Broth

I decided to try out the Vegetable Primavera recipe tonight, and wanted to use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth or plain water. But since Ian worked today, I didn't have the car, so needed to walk to Sacco's to get my veggies, but didn't want to also walk to Smith's for vegetable broth. So I thought, "Hey, I guess I'll try to make my own!" I'd never done this is the past because I thought it would be complicated, but it's really super easy! Here's what you do:


1.Get some veggies to make your broth. You can use any vegetables you'd like. (I just chopped up what I needed to make the Vegetable Primavera in advance, and then used the left overs. So I used yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli stalks, red onion, the top of a yellow bell pepper, and white mushrooms. I also had some carrots in the fridge that needed to be used before they went bad, so I threw those in too.

2. Put all your veggies in a BIG pot. You don't need to peel or even chop up the veggies. Adding the peels is also a good idea because there are lots of nutrients in them.

3. Add a clove of garlic. You can cut this into big chunks, or hit it with the handle part of a knife to just break it up a bit. (This is optional...but who doesn't LOVE garlic?)

4. Add some herbs if you'd like (I added LOTS of parsley, and a couple of bay leaves) and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add enough water to cover your vegetables, and put the pot on the stove with the heat turned up high.

6. Once the water starts boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer, and let it cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

7. Remove from heat, and let it cool down a little bit.

8. Pour into a large bowl thru a strainer or colander. (A strainer would obviously give you a better broth, but I only have a colander.)

9. If you want to save left over broth, you can freeze it in ice cube trays, or other types of storage containers.


I use recipes that call for vegetable broth a lot, but it usually isn't very much so the left overs go to waste. I also usually have a lot of left over vegetables that end up getting thrown away. So, this is a good economic idea in my opinion! Also, most broths you buy at the store have loads of sodium in them, so this is a much healthier option.