How to Make Your Own Vegetable Stock at Home

How to Make Your Own Vegetable Stock at Home

If you are like most of the beginner home chefs, learning how to make your own vegetable stock at home might seem like a taunting task to overcome. After all why should you go through all the hassle, whereas, it would be very convenient to purchase any type of broth or a stock, anytime, at any supermarket, anywhere!! Well, first of all, as a beginner, you will be much better off by learning the basics of cooking techniques rather than resorting to "shortcuts". Secondly, a homemade vegetable stock is much more flavorful, fresher and healthier than the ones you can buy from your local supermarket.

Tools and The Ingredients That You Need;

Now that I was able to convince you to take the road less traveled, we need to get you prepared properly for your first mission. To prepare your first vegetable stock, you will need to have some tools ready at hand; a medium sized stockpot, a cutting board, a chef knife- to cut the mirepoix vegetables, a kitchen spoon, a couple of kitchen towels, a skimmer, a chinois- to strain the final liquid and a medium sized bowl to strain the vegetable stock into. As for the ingredients, you will need, onion, celery and carrot, which are commonly referred as mirepoix vegetables, as well as, some olive oil, parsley stems, thyme and 10-12 black peppercorns.

Preparation Process;

Before we get started, I am going to assume that you already have prepared your mirepoix vegetables, thyme and parsley stems. To begin, place your stockpot on a medium-high heat. Then, add some olive oil into the pan and add your mirepoix vegetables into the pot. Next, add your aromatics, which are parsley stems, thyme and 10-12 black peppercorns and pour some cold water just enough to cover all the ingredients in the stock pot. After pouring the cold water, bring the vegetable stock up to a simmer and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.

A rule of thumb is to skim the vegetable stock periodically during the 45 minute simmering process. By doing so you will achieve two things. You will first get rid of all the excess fat and scum which surface during simmering and second, you will have a very fresh and a clear stock as a final product. Once the stock has simmered long enough, now you are ready to run it through the chinois. After straining the vegetable stock, you may go ahead and pour the final product in a plastic container and store it in your freezer for later use.

Final Words;

The soup isle of your local supermarket is filled with various brands of ready-to-use vegetable stocks and broths. To prepare your stock, all you have to do is to purchase one of those cans and place it in a microwave for about 5-10 minutes. However, if you have read this far, you already know how easy it is to learn how to make your own vegetable stock at home. All you need is to have some patience to go through the whole process, which lasts merely 45 minutes. By doing so you will not only be able to make a vegetable stock which will be much healthier, fresher and more flavorful than the ready-to-use ones, but, you will also be learning the basic cooking methods and techniques as well.

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