Save your vegetable scraps and make this homemade vegetable broth recipe in your crock pot or slow cooker! Use it fresh or freeze it for later!
March 9, 2020…By Megan Byrd, RD – How to Make Vegetable Broth blog post contains affiliate links. See full disclosure page for details.
Lately it seems like I’ve been throwing away a lot of vegetables. I plan these meals and sometimes I just get busy or we get pizza instead. I end up having all these limp carrots or leftover herbs I can’t use.
So I started saving those vegetables for homemade vegetable broth before they completely rot in my crisper. I freeze them in a gallon sized bag and save them until I have the zip lock bag COMPLETELY packed with vegetable scraps and herbs.
Why Make Your Own Vegetable Broth?
It’s actually been really helpful because I always forget to buy broth at the store anyway. By making it myself, I usually always have some ready to go!
It’s super tasty (way better than store bought), not as salty, and saves me some money in the long run. I’m not getting rich off making homemade vegetable broth, but when you’re on a budget, every cent counts!
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The best thing about making your own vegetable broth is that you can use whatever vegetables you have (for the most part).
For the purposes of this blog post, I made an actual recipe for you guys, but don’t feel like you need to follow it exactly if you have different vegetables.
Vegetables to Avoid
One thing to keep in mind is that not all vegetables will taste good in homemade vegetable broth. Starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips) are a no-go because they tend to make it thick (because of the starch) and kind of cloudy. Cabbage, lettuce, brussel sprouts, and asparagus add some bitter and/or just weird flavors to your broth.
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Ideal Vegetables To Use
For good vegetable broth, you always need 3 specific vegetables: carrots, celery, and onion. All the other vegetables are completely up to you!
Bell peppers, leeks, tomatoes, mushrooms, and garlic are all great ones to use for your homemade vegetable broth. And don’t forget the herbs! I also throw in some thyme and basil in there to give it even more flavor!
No matter what vegetables you use, this recipe is written for roughly a full gallon sized bag of vegetables and makes about half a gallon (8 cups) of vegetable broth.
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Recipe
Homemade Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
- 5 carrots cleaned and chopped
- 5 celery stalks cleaned and chopped
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 4-6 cups vegetables scraps (bell pepper, kale, leeks, mushrooms, etc)
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup fresh thyme chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 5 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 3 bay leaves
- 8 cups water
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in slow cooker and stir thoroughly.
- Cook in slow cooker on low for 8-10 hours.
- During the last hour, taste and add more herbs/seasonings as necessary.
- Turn slow cooker off and let cool for 15-20 minutes.
- Strain into a large stock pot or bowl. Divide into glass jars or containers.
- Keep in fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Pin me for later!
If you end up making this and loving it, take a photo and tag me on Instagram! I’d love to see your versions of my recipes! And feel free to rate it down below in the comment section. I would really appreciate it!
Once you start saving your vegetable scraps, you’ll be amazed at how much you were throwing away. Try this recipe and tell me what you think in the comments below!
xoxo Megan
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