How To Make Vegetable Broth | Easy & Cheap!

Careful, this is very hot. What's up everybody? Welcome back to another video. Today we are going to help you save some money and teach you how to make your very own veggie broth at home. Yeah, so this is something that we actually make weekly in our home and it is very affordable. It's super easy to make and it'll help you save money because you won't have to buy vegetable broth at the store and you'll be able to use some of your vegetable scraps so you get more for your buck. So start saving your scraps and let's get into it. So for our vegetable broth today we actually purchased some fresh ingredients from the store. We usually use mostly vegetable scraps that we have saved in our freezer but since I know some of you haven't been saving vegetable scraps, if you're new to making vegetable broth this is where I would start. So we have here, do you want to name some of the ingredients here? Of course. So we're going to be using some leeks, some garlic, some celery that kind of looks sad so good thing we're putting it to use. Some carrots, some mushrooms, shiitakes I think it is. Sorry, shiitakes. We have some parsley, some thyme for an added extra flavor, some tomatoes, some bay leaves, an onion, got that black pepper, and some kale from the garden. So there are some things that you shouldn't put in your vegetable broth because it will cause them to be bitter. We'll have a full list on our blog of what you should and shouldn't include in your broth. But just to name a few, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, rutabaga, rutabaga, oh my god I always say it wrong. Just because those will cause your broth to be bitter and we have done it before and it's not fun because it doesn't taste good. So I would just recommend that you don't include those. And we're just going to talk a little bit about our scraps as well. So first up, this is a ReZip bag. So it is a reusable Ziploc bag. These things are awesome, super durable. We got it on Thrive Market. I'll leave a link below if you want to check it out. Hashtag not sponsored. But yeah, we love it because it is reusable, it is eco-friendly, and it is very durable. And I think you can stick this in the dishwasher. We haven't, we usually wash it by hand. Yeah, we use the small one in the dishwasher. So in here, what you can put in your vegetable broth are things like the ends of celery that you're not going to use or like sad celery like this. Onion skins and scraps. And garlic skins and scraps. We also have pieces of peppers in here. So we also have some kale in here that we needed to use up in the fridge. Pieces of asparagus. This bag is loaded up. Yeah. It actually smells really good. So we usually just store this in the freezer and then just keep adding on to it. And once it is full, we make stock. Yeah, or broth. Today it's not completely full. It's because we wanted to start this recipe. Alright. We are going to start chopping our veggies for this. And again, you can include the skins and the tops and bottoms of things. We're going to put the whole vegetable for everything except for the kale. We're not going to include the stems just to make sure that it doesn't get too bitter. And then the stems we're just going to compost. Did you do the honors? Alright. So we're going to start out with our onion. That's a funny noise. And again, you just need to roughly chop it because we're going to be putting the whole thing in. But it's easier for the onion to break down if it's in smaller pieces. Alright, pop those in. You missed a skin. And then I'm going to... I guess it's my turn? Okay. I guess we're going to take turns here. I don't know. We wanted to both be in this demo. Here we are. So next up is the kale. And I wanted to show you, if you haven't done this yet... This is a sweet simple trick right here. It's not my personal trick, but it's a trick. Kale, a lot of people have a hard time de-stemming it. And all you need to do is just hold it. Pull it. That's it. There you go. I'm going to do that with all of the kale. I'm not going to chop this. Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm not going to chop this because it's going to take too much time. And it's going to break down because it's kale. And the tip of this... Be gentle when you pull. Put force, but also be gentle. Because it kind of rips the whole stem. Like I just did, but... It can't be perfect, right? Alright. And then the next step, I'm just going to throw some tomatoes in there. We got three tomatoes. So apparently a pound of tomatoes is... Between two and three tomatoes, depending on the size. Yeah, that's actually perfect. Because that is what we have. So I'm just going to roughly chop. There you go. Next step. Let's do the celery. Also, we should note that make sure you just wash everything before you put it in. Like the onion skins, make sure you rinse off all the dirt. Because you don't want that going into the broth. You forgot a little guy here. So we're just going to roughly chop this again. Can this go in? Yeah, throw it in. Let's get crazy. And there you go. I guess we'll just continue. Yeah, those can just go, right? Mushrooms. Yeah, the bay leaves can go. The thyme and the parsley, you can just throw them in. We're just going to rip them up. And we aren't going to have to tie a string around this and stick it in. Because at the end, we're going to be straining everything. So yeah, you don't have to worry about small pieces, big pieces, whatever. It's all going to come out at the end. And then garlic. I feel like garlic is essential, right? I love garlic. So for the garlic, let's put like... Should we just smash it, or are we just putting the whole thing in? I don't think we need to put the whole head. I was going to put like half of it. What do you think? I also should mention that the recipe for our broth on the blog is totally customizable. Based on your preference, what you have. Put more garlic if you want more garlic. Just get crazy with it. Have fun. It's just going to be a smorgasbord of everything you've had throughout the week. Smorgasburg. That's it. Oh, Bear. What happened? Bear just like ran away. I don't know what happened. Do we need to chop these at all? No, just stick them in like that. Alright. Don't forget the skinnies. Got your pretty little tri-colored carrots. Boom, boom, and boom. And then the big daddy. Here we go. I'm going to do the honors with this one. You just got to cut it in half. Okay, I'll do it. We're going to be using all of it. It's just easier. Yeah, just cut it up into small chunks. We're using half, right? Yeah. You can use the whole thing, but we're just going to use half. And then save the rest for another recipe. Smells really good. So our black pepper. We're going to put about half a teaspoon-ish. Teaspoon-ish. Half a teaspoon-ish. I actually forgot to get the salt. That's probably about good. Yeah, it's like all over my hands. Just throw that in. I love black pepper. My eyes are starting to tear from the onions. Can you grab the salt? You can also make it salt free if you guys prefer, but this will definitely add a nice little boost of flavor. Do like half a teaspoon. And you can also add this in at the end. Whatever you want to do. Whatever floats your boat. Very serious sitting on my foot right now. Oh my gosh. And then lastly, we're going to be adding in our scraps from earlier this week. And we're not going to be adding all this because it's a lot of onions. Basically what's in here. And then we have some peppers and some carrots. But we're just going to be throwing that in. And then again, whatever we don't use, we're just going to pop back in the freezer, keep the bag in there, and keep filling it up with more scraps as the week goes on. And I'm sure if a lot of you guys cook a lot, this will definitely fill up quickly. Is there a little more bell pepper in there? A little bit. I think that'll taste pretty good. Okay, so now all we have to do is add water. So here I have about 12 cups of water. And we're just going to pour that in. And we want to make it so that everything is covered. So in our pot, we need a little more. Because our pot is pretty tall. Get some more filtered water. So since we have a big pot today, we're going to be adding quite a lot of water. But we just try to make sure that the water goes just right above the vegetables. And this is pretty good. Everything's popping out, but it should be fine. It's floating. So all that's left to do is bring this to a boil on the stove, and then lower it to a simmer for about an hour-ish. And then we'll be back. You can also cook it for a little longer if you want to absorb a little more flavor. Yeah. It's all up to you guys. You can put this in a pressure cooker or in a slow cooker. We'll have all the directions on our blog as well. But today we're using a pot. So we're going to boil this and then we will check in once it is done. So now it's been about an hour. A little over an hour. It smells amazing in this house. And now it's time to strain our broth. While we grab it, I want to trip on Barry's toys. Be careful. This is very hot. Yeah. Usually we like to let it cool down, but for the sake of this video and for time, we're just going to go with it and hopefully not burn ourselves. That smells incredible. So carefully just... Woo! Yeah. Just scaring me a bit. Oh ----! Now we're good. Party foul. Party foul. So I purposefully put more of the veggies into here because you want to push down against them on the strainer to squeeze out the excess liquid. Yeah. To get more flavor out of this. So we have a bunch more veggies in here, so as this fills, we'll empty it and then refill it with the contents in here. Alright, so we've finished straining this. And then once this cools completely, we will add it to jars. Or any container that you have that is sealable that you can put in the refrigerator. And then you have vegetable broth. Yeah, that is about it. So you can use it for soups, stews, you can use it to sauté with instead of oil, you can use it, of course, in place of any other vegetable broth. You can even just drink it. Yeah, actually. It's like vegan bone broth. It's loaded with vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and it smells so good. And another thing you can do is, this is what my mom does, oh, they are stuck together, but you can add the broth to ice cube trays and then freeze them, so you have perfect portions when they're all frozen. Yeah, so I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thank you for watching. If you enjoyed it, please give it a thumbs up and comment down below. Let us know what you'll be using your veggie broth for. Yeah, and make sure you follow us on Instagram. We always forget to mention that. I am sweetsimplevegan on Instagram. I'm consciouschris. And we will see you in the next video. Bye!