Stock Up
Making chicken stock is an arduous process that requires patience and attention to detail. Making vegetable stock is far easier and is the key ingredient to most of the soups I make. I grew up with the notion that vegetable stock didn’t really have any flavor and you should always choose chicken stock. Lucky for me, the first summer of my farmer’s market addiction left me with a ton of veggies I didn’t know what to do with. Vegetable stock seemed like a viable option at that point so I gave it a shot and we’ve been addicted ever since. The only thing you really need is a little time.
Ingredients
1 medium onion, quartered
2-3 celery stalks, halved
2-3 carrots, peeled & halved
6 cloves of garlic, peeled & smashed
1 medium potato, quartered
1 teaspoon red pepper flake
2 bay leaves
2-3 sprigs of thyme
1/4 cup of white wine (optional)
1-2 tablespoon olive oil
salt/pepper
Alternates include almost anything, minus stuff from the cabbage family, but some examples are any kind of pepper, turnips, mushrooms, leeks, squash, asparagus, really, you name it, it’ll probably work in your stock. Just be careful of adding too many carrots, which can make it overly sweet.
Directions
Place vegetables & olive oil in a large baking dish and toss to coat. Roast in a 375? oven for about an hour or until browned. Remove vegetables to your stock pot. Deglaze the dish with the wine (or water), scraping up the brown bits, and add to the pot along with the herbs & enough water to cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for about 45 minutes or until the veggies have no flavor left. Strain until no small particles remain in the stock. Freeze for later use or make some soup!
SPF