Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps
This Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps recipe puts your discarded veggie scraps to good use. Just boil them in a pot of water and you’ve got delicious homemade veggie broth!
It’s super easy to make your own vegetable broth. We put all of our veggie scraps throughout the week into a container that we store in the freezer. Each time we chop up or peel veggies, we pull the container out of the freezer and add our scraps to it.
Here are some of the things we like to throw into our Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps pot:
- Green bean snaps
- Onion peels
- Potato peels, eyes and dark spots
- Carrot peels and ends
- Zucchini peels and ends
- Tomato cores
- Spinach, chard and kale stems
- Broccoli and cauliflower stalks (chopped small)
- Etc. Etc. Etc.
One thing we discovered that we DON’T like are cabbage scraps, especially red cabbage. The cabbage flavor is so strong that it overpowers the other veggies, and the red cabbage gives it a dirty tint that isn’t very appetizing. You might like it, but we didn’t.
Once we have enough scraps to fill a large soup pot (usually by Sunday), we put them in the pot, fill it with water and boil it for 1 to 2 hours. Then we pour the remaining liquid through a strainer into a large 32 ounce mason jar and refrigerate it.
The scraps are spent at this point. You can throw them out or compost them, if that’s your thing.
There are several benefits to making your own vegetable broth:
- You control what goes in it – most store-bought broth has oil and other chemicals in it. This homemade broth is pure veggie gold.
- It’s a great use for your veggie scraps – instead of throwing all of those beautiful scraps away, do the environment a favor and make your own easy vegetable broth from scraps out of them. Making your own saves all of the energy and packaging that goes into store-bought vegetable broth.
- It tastes a little different every time – since you won’t have exactly the same mixture of scraps each week, your broth won’t always be the same. Variety is the spice of life and also this easy vegetable broth!
- It saves you money – buying your veggie broth from the store can get expensive, especially if you buy organic and oil-free. We’ve been able to stop buying it completely, which saves us about $25 per month!!!
Go ahead and try it! It’s super easy and absolutely delicious!
If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 12 servings | 5 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 2 hours |
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This Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps recipe puts your discarded veggie scraps to good use. Just boil them in water for delicious homemade veggie broth. This recipe saves us at least $20/month in store-bought veggie broth.
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- Chop all of the veggie scraps into small pieces. It's easier to do this before you freeze them.
- Put enough scraps into a large soup pot to fill it about 3/4 full.
- Fill the pot with water fully covering the veggie scraps and bring to a boil
- Reduce to simmer and continue cooking for 1 to 2 hours, or until the liquid has reduced to about half and it takes on a tan-ish brown color. DO NOT add more water. That dilutes the broth. You want it to concentrate a little.
- Let cool and pour through a fine mesh strainer into a smaller saucepan with a handle. Rinse the strainer and pour the broth through the strainer again into one or more mason jars or sealable containers. Refrigerate until needed. Use within 1 week.
Serving size and nutrition info varies considerably depending on how much and what types of veggies you use. This recipe usually makes about 12 cups, so we're saying a serving size is 1 cup for this recipe and the nutrition info.
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