Thrifty Vegetable Broth
/Making thrifty vegetable broth (aka vegetable stock) is easy; it just takes a little thought and planning. At Alandi, we usually make the broth on Friday. All week long, I save clean vegetable scraps in a plastic, cloth or brown paper bag in the frig. This time I had asparagus stalks, watercress stalks, tops and tails of carrots, some Jerusalem artichoke offcuts and the stem and outer leaves of my cauliflower. Often I have broccoli stalks etc.
When you're ready to make the broth, use a stainless steel stock pot. Wash your veggie scraps and put them in the pot. If it's something large, like a cauliflower stalk, chop it up. Look in your vegetable drawer for anything that needs using up. You can wash and add it. If you like, add some dried herbs for seasoning, but you don't have to.
Do not add salt; you will to salt the final product (soup, risotto etc).
Add plenty of water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for a couple of hours, until the water has a good colour. Strain and store in a screw top glass jar until you're ready to use it as a base for a soup or as called for in a recipe.
Things to put in Vegetable Broth
Clean vegetable scraps
Carrot tops
The seeds and insides of squash or pumpkin
Squash or pumpkin peels
Cilantro or parsley stalks
Garlic skins
Things NOT to put in vegetable broth
Anything black, brown, mouldy, gross or yellowed
Bitter gourd scraps
Pepper seeds or cores (makes it bitter)
Hot pepper scraps (makes it too spicy)
Citrus peels
The things you can’t use in your broth can go in the compost bucket, as can the residual veggies left after you make the broth.
Alakananda Ma M.B., B.S. (Lond.) is an Ayurvedic Doctor (NAMA) and graduate of a top London medical school. She is co-founder of Alandi Ayurveda Clinic and Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder Colorado, as well as a spiritual mother, teacher, flower essence maker and storyteller. Alakananda is a well known and highly respected practitioner in the Ayurveda community both nationally and internationally.
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