I keep a large ziplock of veggie scraps and bones in my freezer at all times. Once the ziplock is full, I make this broth. It’s a great way to save some organics from the landfill and stretch a rotisserie chicken further. If an animal died for this, I better get every morsel of nutrition out of it.
Ingredients
- Vegetable scraps:
- Onion tops and bottoms and outside leaves. Not too many peels or the broth will turn red.
- Garlic shoots and bottoms
- Carrot bottoms and peels
- Celery leaves, bottoms and peels
- Parsnip bottoms and peels
- Celery root peels
- Parsley stems
- (optional) Poultry—chicken, duck, goose, or turkey-—carcasses or any sort of bones except pork
- Carrot(s) – optional
- Onion(s) – optional
- Celery stalk(s) – optional
- Parsnip(s) – optional
- Celery root – optional
- Aromatics: I usually use bay leaf, you can also add thyme springs and black pepper corns
Make sure all your scraps are well-washed. It is best to wash the vegetables before peeling and chopping, but rewash them in lots of cold running water if something goes wrong.
Place everything in a large stockpot. Cover with water.
Place on high heat on the stove. Bring to boil. Skim if you want a transparent broth.
Simmer on low, uncovered, for about 1-2 hours. Simmer more if you’d like a thick broth. Careful, don’t leave it unattended for long, though — it will burn (this happened before).
Filter out the solids with a colander. If there are any salvageable pieces of meat, save them for the soup later.
Before refrigerating, cool to room temperature under a loose-fitting lid. If you close it while hot, there will be condensate on the cover from beneath, and it will speed up the spoilage, which would be a pity.
Make it a meal
- Add halved boiled eggs, parmesan, parsley, chicken meat (if using) and a handful or cooked pasta and voila you have a chicken soup.
Notes
- Mix and match your ingredients. I sometimes make just a broth scraps broth and it works fine.
- Freezes very well.
- Tightly covered, keeps for about 1 week in the fridge
- Christmas duck or goose makes for an amazing broth base. Make mushroom soup with it.