This Reader Makes Her Own Vegetable Stock
Soup’s on with this money-saving idea! 🍲
It’s finally October, and as far as I’m concerned that means it’s SOUP season! There is nothing better than sipping on hot, homemade soup while watching your favorite show (shoutout to the Hallmark and Food Network channels)!
Instead of spending your money on soup stock at the store, Hip2Save reader, Denise, is sharing how she makes vegetable stock using her own veggie scraps! You don’t want to miss this tip…
I love to save money and one way that I do this is by making my own vegetable stock using my own vegetable scraps. It’s quick to make and only costs pennies compared to buying it at the store.
I freeze the trimmings, cores, and seeds of tomatoes; tips, and trimmings of green beans; tops of carrots; tips, and trimmings of celery; stems, seeds & trimmings of sweet peppers; trimmings, and peels of onions, etc.
Then when I have a big container full (no need to unthaw), I throw them in a big pot of water along with some salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, a few garlic cloves, a small onion (cut into quarters with the peel left on), some parsley, and a pinch of thyme.
I bring the pot to a boil and then simmer it for at least 10 minutes but will usually do it a bit longer to get more flavor. Strain it and voila! You have vegetable stock all from using your own vegetable scraps.
Better yet, if you want to use this stock to make vegetable soup, as you prep your soup throw the scraps into the stockpot which will enhance the flavor even more.
Bonus! No MSG! Plus, if you’re not going to use right away, you can freeze the stock.
Thank you, Denise, for sharing this idea with us! Such a simple but effective way to make a tasty vegetable stock to use in all the soups we’ll be making for our families to enjoy during these cooler months.
This stock would also be perfect to use in our Tomato Basil, Italian Tortellini, or our Best Ever Lasagna soup recipe!
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Seems like a quick and easy tip. Gonna try it sometime. Thanks!
I do this as well, every week after my food prep. We also freeze all chicken bones to make chicken broth.
I do this too but throw everything in the crockpot. So easy! H2save please share some soup recipes. I need some new ideas.
Hi there! You can find all of our yummy soup recipes over here. Enjoy!
Can’t find link. Thanks!
Sorry for any confusion! Here you go! https://hip2save.com/recipes/?recipe-type=soup
We make stock in the instant pot with a mesh basket that makes straining the juice from the chunks quick and easy.
I do this as well when I cook chicken/ turkey to make rice/noodles/soups/beans. I don’t like bones or biting into bones so I use a mesh strain/steamer basket. I cook the meat until it’s tender enough to take off the bones and then throw the meat back in the pot and save the bones for broth. It’s an extra step but for me it saves me the aggravation of biting into bones.
I started saving my veggie scraps in the freezer to do this, but then I ran out of freezer space. Oops 🙂 Now I compost my veggie scraps, but I do make stock from my turkey carcass after Thanksgiving–I can it so it doesn’t take up space in the freezer.
This is a great idea that I need to start doing. Thanks!
Going to try this. I buy at least 8 containers a month of veggie stock and never thought to make my own. Thanks!
I do this with the bones from a rotisserie chicken and add onion, garlic, carrots, bay leaf, pepper, celery salt, and a bouillon cube. I make it in an Instapot on the broth setting. Afterwards, I strain with a mesh strainer. I am able to fill 6 spaghetti-sized mason jars. I save spaghetti sauce jars for this purpose. I am able to use the broth for add flavor to vegetables, pasta dishes, casseroles, or soups. I will now try the vegetable broth recipe. Thanks for the idea of saving the veggie scraps!
This might be a dumb question but how do you clean all the dirt off the scraps? Since the veggies grow in the dirt? Or do you just rinse them and throw them in. For example my carrot ends from the grocery store usually have dirt.
when i do this, i rinse the vegetables before i use them, so when i put the scraps in the freezer they already look clean. if anything had dirt on it that looked like it didn’t come off, you could compost that part or throw it away. even when i get carrots from my garden, rinsing seems to work, or you could use a veggie brush.
even the outsides/skins of the onions and garlic looks fine when it comes from the store. if it had some germs on it, germs would be killed by the boiling.
I’ve been doing this for years also. Veggie scraps into the freezer until I have enough to process and can up. Taste great, you know where it comes from and little to now waste. Win-Win.!!!