Making your own roasted vegetable broth is really easy, incredibly tasty, and much more nutritional when compared to the store-bought kind. I do my best to make our broth in large batches and then canning up some of it and freezing some. You can watch my process in this short series of videos where I take you step by step through the entire process including canning and freezing it!
There is really only about 20 minutes of active time, it doesn’t really require a specific recipe, as you can use up those veggies in your fridge you’ve been meaning to eat, it tastes great, it stores easily, and is highly customizable.
Control the Sodium
Have you ever looked at the amount of sodium in store-bought broth. Even in the low sodium versions, the amount is incredibly high. Aside from the health benefits of decreasing sodium in your diet lowering the amount in the broth allows you to utilize it easier in recipes.
Control the Ingredients
Making vegetable broth is very imprecise. I’ll provide the recipe I made up, but just use it as a guideline to get you started. If you’re part of a CSA and the fall harvest of veggies has you overwhelmed, simply put the veggies you can’t figure out how to eat in your broth. In my opinion, there are only three required vegetables for your stock: onions, carrots, and celery AKA, mirepoix.
Mirepoix
Mirepoix (pronunciation: meer-PWAH) is the aromatic flavor base made by lightly cooking onions, celery, and carrots. The vegetables are cooked slowly in butter or oil in order to coax out the flavors without browning or caramelizing them. It’s not called the holy trinity of French cuisine for nothing.
Use Up Scraps
Start with roasting fresh onions, carrots, and celery for the broth then when it's simmering add scraps from other meals or veggies that you don’t have any better plans for. I keep a container in our freezer that I add veggies to for the next time I make broth. It's a great way to cut down on waste.
Roasting the Vegetables
Roast your vegetables in a 400-degree oven for 30-60 minutes. I roast on a baking sheet or roasting pan depending on how much broth I'm making. The resulting flavor is worth the extra time if you have it.
Homemade Vegetable Broth With Roasted Vegetables
Makes about 10 Cups of Broth
Ingredients
- 2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1-2 cloves of garlic
- 7 ribs of celery chopped
- 7 large carrots, chopped
- 1 Leek
- 16 cups of water/ 1 Gallon of water
- 1 bunch of thyme
- 1-2 Bay leaves
- **Peppercorns are optional
Instructions
1. Make sure that all of your veggies are washed and chopped. Don't chop them smaller than about 2" chunks.
2. In a large pot over medium-high heat, saute the onions until fragrant (about 2 minutes). Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients into the pot and bring to a boil. Add a bay leaf or 2 and the fresh thyme. Bring the broth to a boil. Stir gently once and then be prepared to leave it alone for the duration of the cooking time.
4. Allow to simmer on low heat for approx. 1 hour. The longer you simmer the broth, the more the liquid cooks off and becomes more concentrated in flavor.
5. Strain the broth through a finemesh strainer and keep in an airtight container.
**Roasting your vegetables first in a 400-degree oven for 30-60 minutes will greatly improve the flavor of the broth.
Storage
This will keep in your fridge for up to one week. Be sure to shake it up before you use it. If you'd like to can this we have a set of step-by-step videos you can watch. Canning Vegetable Broth videos.
How to Use Homemade Broth
Homemade broth is great in any recipe that calls for broth. I use it to replace a portion of the water that is called for in many recipes. You can find more of our recipes under the recipe link.