Veggie Broth

In the last couple of years I have been growing a vegetable garden to help cut costs in the summer.  Which means that I often have a lot of food scraps from them.  I usually just toss them in the garbage and go on.  However, during my current efforts to reduce my family waste and save money I have come up with a way to save some money and get the most out of my garden every summer.  One of the things that I get from the grocery store (mostly in the winter when I make soups and stews) is various broths depending on what I am making.  Well, why not start making my own veggie broth and freeze it so I can use it in the winter when fresh veggies aren't readily available.  What I have been doing this summer is as I use my fresh veggies I save the scraps in a container in the freezer until I have a decent amount.  Once I have enough to make a batch of broth I take them and put them in a pot, covering them with water.  For the batch on the left I added some bay leaves, oregano, chives, and garlic powder to lend it some flavor.

The great thing with this is that you can use any spices that you want to match the broth to your specific taste.  (This allows you to have different flavor profiles if you want and you know exactly what is going into your broth!)

After adding the herbs I just covered the pot and let it simmer for a couple hours, talk about the house smelling good, like vegetable soup.  Once it boils I just strained the scraps out and poured the broth into ice cube trays.  I then froze the broth and put them in a freezer container. 

The reason I did it in ice cubes is to allow me to use as little or as much of the broth as I want.  When cooking I sometimes add just a dash of broth for flavor and this will allow me to do that (just add a cube or two) without feeling obligated to use the canned stuff in such large quantities or in a time frame. 

Some of the scraps that I used for this batch is: okra, zucchini, banana peppers, bell peppers, onions, tomato (this was fresh as they don't really freeze good), carrots.  I plan to use other veggies in addition batches like: potatoes, bell peppers, celery, cucumbers.  I am also planning on trying to make some chicken brother the next time I cook a whole chicken in the crock pot.

I am very excited about using this and how much it will save over the course of a year by not having to buy broths from the grocery store. 

Happy savings!

-Sarah D.