Homemade vegetable stock always tastes better, preservative free and cheaper than canned one in stores. The use of vegetable stock can adds flavor and nutrition to many recipes. Making a basic vegetable stock recipe is really simple but it is time consuming. All you have to do is add some vegetables to water, after about an hour of simmering, just strain out the vegetables and the resulting liquid is vegetable stock. Onion, garlic, celery and carrot are the base ingredients to vegetable stock preparation. You can customize this vegetarian stock, by adding any fresh herbs like oregano or dill or basil. Feel free to add vegetable trimmings, such as carrot peelings, potato peelings and other discards.

Basic Vegetable stock is an all-purpose stock that can be used as a soup base or to make sauces, risottos or pilafs. Another variation of making vegetable stock, is to roast the vegetables at 425º F for 45 mins before adding them to water. Regarding salting to stock, in addition to little salt, I used splash of tamari because it adds a nice flavor and a color. Try this homemade stock recipe at home and let me know how you liked it.

How to make Homemade Vegetable Stock Recipe

Ingredients for Homemade Vegetable Stock

Preparation Time : 10 mins Cooking Time: 1 hr Serves: 5 cups

1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Red Onion, Roughly Chopped
2 Celery Ribs, Chopped
2 Medium Size Carrots, Chopped
8 Cups of Water
2 Garlic Cloves, Crushed
Few Parsley Leaves
1 Large Bay Leaf
1/2 Tsp of Black Pepper
1 Tbsp of Tamari or Soy Sauce

Method for Homemade Vegetable Stock

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot, in a medium flame, add onion, celery and carrots. Cover and cook until it slightly softened about 5 mins.
Add the water, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns, tamari and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then simmer it, uncovered for 1 hour to reduce the liquid, this is to bring out the flavors of the vegetables.
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into another pot, press the liquid out of the vegetables with the back of a large spoon.
Vegetable stock is ready to use.

Tips

Store it in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator. It will stay good for 3 days.
Always cook in a low flame, so that flavors of vegetables comes out.
Fresh herbs gives you a flavor boost to stock.
Adding tamari to stock gives you umami taste.