Rich & Hearty Homemade Vegetable Stock

Every cook needs a great vegetable stock recipe – for soups, sauces, and enhancing all kinds of dishes. Canned stocks work in a pinch, but take the time to make this Homemade Vegetable Stock – made from roasted vegetables – just once and you’ll become a true believer.

When I was growing up, I didn’t even know that you could buy soup broth or stock from a can, because we always made it at home. Then I grew up, moved out, and learned that for the price of a cheap hamburger, you can buy it ready-made. Cool!

Well…as it turns out, canned stock isn’t so cool after all. What it is is flat and flavorless. So I went back to making my own, and I’ve been doing so ever since.

Homemade stock is cheap, easy to make, and amazingly versatile – and essential for cooking soups and stews and sauces. The basic vegetarian version includes onion, celery and carrots – add or delete vegetables according to your own tastes and the produce you have on hand.

The parsnip, by the way, is homage to my grandpa.💙

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Rich & Hearty Roasted Vegetable Stock

Vegetable stock is cheap, easy to make, and amazingly versatile - and essential for cooking vegetarian soups and stews and sauces. The basic version includes onion, celery and carrots – add or delete vegetables according to your own tastes and the produce you have on hand.

Course Basic

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 20 minutes

Servings 8

Author Renée ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet onion peeled and sliced vertically
• ½ a bunch of celery chopped into chunks
• 6-8 medium carrots cut in big chunks
• 1 parsnip peeled and sliced thick
• ½ pound tomatoes quartered
• 5 cloves garlic smashed
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 gallon water
• 1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
• 4-5 whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• Dash or two of hot sauce I use Cholula

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Put the prepared vegetables and thyme in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with kosher salt and a little freshly ground pepper, and toss with olive oil.
3. Place vegetables in the preheated oven. Stir the vegetable every 20 minutes. Cook until all of the vegetables have browned and the onions start to caramelize, this will take about an hour.
4. Transfer the cooked vegetables to a large large stock pot. Add water, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, and a dash or two of hot sauce. Bring to a full boil, and then reduce heat to simmer. Cook uncovered until liquid is reduced by about half (I tend to boil it a little longer - I like my stock rich and robust. Plus, you can water it down later if you want to. Taste and season with more kosher salt, pepper, etc, until it fits your personal tastes. (I usually add a teaspoon or so of brown sugar and some garlic powder.)
5. Pour the stock through a sieve. Stock can be used immediately, or stored in the refridgerator for later use, or frozen.
6. Makes about 2 quarts.
7. P.S. Technically, since this is seasoned when prepared, it is a broth, but "broth" sounds like something you eat when you're sick, so I'm calling it stock.

Prepped vegetables ready for roasting. They look so pretty.

Roasted vegetables ~ Can’t you just smell the flavors!? After you put the vegetables into the stock pot, deglaze the roasting dish with a little of the stock-water to loosen the caramelized bits and get every bit of flavor into your stock.

It takes about an hour and a half to reduce the stock. Stir every once and awhile, but otherwise, just let it do its thing. Season toward the end when the flavors of the vegetables have permeated the stock; do it too early in the process and it is easy to over-season.